Whats your most hard earned victory ever?

[Internazionale]

This was mine, I was about 30-40 years into the campaign as Carthage, when I desided that I would launch a assault against Sicily. So I took Lilybaeum back(I retreated from it the first turn, so I had one less front to care about) and I marched onto the Greek city of Syracuse. While my movement was depleted, I pressed the end turn and as soon as it was the Greeks turn they attacked my elite stack!
But this army was so hardcore!
It was consisting of a full hoplite army, so I had difficulties outflanking it.
About 75 % of it consisted of Armored Hoplites, and the rest normal Hoplites.
Fortunately no spartans, then I would never have won the battle.

Well, ok my army was not that elite. It was mostly Iberian infantry, some Libyan Spearmen, some Sacred Band, 2 units of elephants, 3 units of round shield cavalry and the generals unit.

I decided to concentrate all of my force on one point so the Greeks would be easier to outflank. When the Greek hoplites clashed with the terrified Carthaginian Infantry, a gap was created in their line. I sent all of my cavalry in between that line, and smashed into the back of the hoplites. One problem was that the hoplites turned when I charged, killing a lot of horsemen. I sent my elephants in there hoping they would rout so I could go for the other hoplites who were slowly but surely closing in.

But it was getting harder and harder, as half my army routed. The only brave warriors I had was the elite Sacred Band. They NEVER routed once like the other cowards in my army.

I ended up losing 66 % of my army at that battle while almost every Greek hoplite was killed.

Unfortunately I have no screen shot
But post if you can!

[piranha45]

I'm a dumb newb who just started playing RTW 2 weeks ago. Last night, I sent two disposeable generals at an unknown rebel army in my territory.

It turned out to be 2 hastati, 1 equites, and peasants. I got the equites and peasants to separate sufficiently from the hastati as they chased me, and then smashed them each in turn. that left the hard part-- 80 hastati. I had 10 men and 7 men remaining at this point, respectively.

I ran the hastati around the map for 20 mins till they were Exhausted and Shaken. then as I baited them with 1 group and charged their flanks with the other, I noticed that the AI let my attacking group slice away mercilessly, as the hastati continued to chase my other cavalry group. so I wound up not losing any horses at all, while all the hastati were destroyed.

I know I've won some more serious battles by the skin of my teeth, but I can't recall them in sufficient detail

[Internazionale]

Oh. But you could have gone into more detail, like how far in ca it was into the campaign, which faction you played as etc.

[piranha45]

I'm playing as the Gauls, on Medium campaign diff and VH battles. At this point I'm the undisputed lord of the world, pretty much. I run spain, france, britain, germany, italy, greece. The incident itself occurred next to my capital, Rome. some rebels spontaneously popped up, and rather than wait a few turns for reinforcements to arrive, I threw two fresh and handy generals into the fray. So it really wasnt an important battle, but it did take me 30-45 minutes to win, and I only had 17 heavy cavalry out of 24 left, heh.

[Ephialtes The Dog]

A tw newb was playing on my comp the other day, he was playing the GCS and he got attacked by the macs. He had 4 sp hoplites and the macs had a stack and a half of cavalry and phalangites. So he deploys his troops on a hill, smart except he's facing uphill. So the half stack reaches his army first and he decides to send one of his sp hoplites at them. They begin to die and then he asks me to fight the battle for him, so I take over and I pull the hoplites back into a line and win the battle.

[Kratos]

Several examples involving the death of faction leaders, heirs and ten star generals.

[Domnul Ceaşcă]

Hardest victory eh? Well let`s see, 1 year ago, in RTW Vannila i started a campaign with the Seleucids.There was nothing left to conquer(i was fanatical) in asia minor. The Egyptians were my vassals, Armenia was wiped out as well as Parthia, Pontus, and any presence of Thrace(strange isn`t it?) and The Greek Cities in modern day turkey. Then i made an alliance with Carthage, and was preparing for a campaign in Italy. I built 2 full stacks of trireme. I embarked two full stack army`s on those 2 full stack fleets, 1 of the 2 army`s were battle hardened veterans and the other was a non experienced one as well as the generals, the one leading the expierenced army was a 10 star general plus all the other stuff. I saved the campaign and prayed to Poseidon that i won`t catch a storm as i make my way to Italy. Then the unbelievable happened, a storm, near that sicily gap, but i was lucky and it didn`t affect my army in anyway since it was too far. I saved again. As i made my way to Rome, i was starting to think of the resistance i was going to meet there, i mean....WTF?Seleucids?Here?!, anyway, i disembarked my army near Rome, i then besieged Rome(apparently). The SPQR garrison in Rome was a full stack less experienced army then mine. I hit the next turn button, and next turn, they sallied forth and attacked me(brave but foolish). Then this most difficult battle began. I made a block shaped line with my 14 units of phalanxes, 4 units of archers to the rear, and my general and 1 unit of companion cavalry in the back. The Romans formed up, and started marching toward my army in a strait line, i ordered my archers to fire. The Romans rammed in to my army like a steamroller, and a hard battle begun, their triarii tried to flank my right and left, but i repulsed them with my generals bodyguard and companion cavlary. After 20-25 min of man to man fighting and no retreating the romans panicked and i routed them, altough i was unable to capture the city at that time, the battle was won, but at a very high cost, the romans only had left, 2 units of principes and 2 general bodyguards, since i caught the other units that ran. Next turn, i attack the city. I climbed the walls, with ladders, i slaughtered the 2 units of principes that were on the walls, i captured the gate, and then i started marching my army toward the center, as i reached the center i was sure i could never lose this battle, but as my army reached the center, i foolishly ordered my general to be in front of his troops, then suddenly, i saw the 2 roman general`s bodyguard charging directly at my general, and unfortunately the ****ing bastard died, and my whole army panicked and ran...can you belive this? an army of phalanxes ****ed by 2 general bodyguards?...anyway, they screwed all of my veteran troops, i was only left with 256 phalanxes, out of 1600 or so. Anyway, next turn, i besiged Rome with my auxiliary army, and executed the sons of *****es, then i saved the campaign, and clicked that exit button. (The following story was not fictional)

[Internazionale]

What a pleasure to read your post Mariano! xD

Well, about 4-5 months ago as Macedon I was besieging a city with mostly levy phalangites. And of course my general was slaughtered, and 80 % of my army was running to their mums. I lost that battle and almost smashed the keyboard.

[Domnul Ceaşcă]

What a pleasure to read your post Mariano! xD

Well, about 4-5 months ago as Macedon I was besieging a city with mostly levy phalangites. And of course my general was slaughtered, and 80 % of my army was running to their mums. I lost that battle and almost smashed the keyboard.

I feel you, that`s what happened in my case, 85% of my army was made out of battle hardened milita hoplites(5-9 chevrons), but in reality, they didn`t worth nothing, the general did.

[spykid55]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....

ow yeah!!I was Numidia. I was gonna attack Rome but it wasn't near enough

so i stopped in the Tiber river. then Julii Attacked me along with SPQR

here are the troops

Julii-2 Preatorian Cohort ,1 (3 star) General, 2 Cavalry Auxilia and 4 early
legionary cohort

SPQR-mostly Principes and Hastatis

Me(Numidia)-4 Numidian legionaires 5 Archers 1 mercenary elephant 4 round shield cavalry and 4 camels

I thought i was toast when they crossed they were about to cross the river

my archers attacked, then they ran like crazyi used my cavalries to flank

them in the sides(both to be exact), my legionaires charged then most of

the SPQRs routed and im still alive i lost 1/4 of my troops.

then i went back to that formation again, cavalries at the sides and heavy

infantry in the middle archers at the back.

I was doin good when Julii attacked my archers were killin most of them,

but then when they past the river i got scared then i got surprised the

cohorts went to testudo then i had my chance i charged my elephant

straight across them, destroying they re formation i chraged my other men

to them i lost 3/4 of it already and my elephants are amock!!!!!!!

but they were few Romans left, when my archers has no more ammo

they charged and i won!!!!!!kind of unexpected

[Internazionale]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....

ow yeah!!I was Numidia. I was gonna attack Rome but it wasn't near enough

so i stopped in the Tiber river. then Julii Attacked me along with SPQR

here are the troops

Julii-2 Preatorian Cohort ,1 (3 star) General, 2 Cavalry Auxilia and 4 early
legionary cohort

SPQR-mostly Principes and Hastatis

Me(Numidia)-4 Numidian legionaires 5 Archers 1 mercenary elephant 4 round shield cavalry and 4 camels

I thought i was toast when they crossed they were about to cross the river

my archers attacked, then they ran like crazyi used my cavalries to flank

them in the sides(both to be exact), my legionaires charged then most of

the SPQRs routed and im still alive i lost 1/4 of my troops.

then i went back to that formation again, cavalries at the sides and heavy

infantry in the middle archers at the back.

I was doin good when Julii attacked my archers were killin most of them,

but then when they past the river i got scared then i got surprised the

cohorts went to testudo then i had my chance i charged my elephant

straight across them, destroying they re formation i chraged my other men

to them i lost 3/4 of it already and my elephants are amock!!!!!!!

but they were few Romans left, when my archers has no more ammo

they charged and i won!!!!!!kind of unexpected

You know who Atilla16 from YouTube is? Hes one of the greatest Total War strategists IMO against the AI.
Were the Julii coming from behind of your side of the bridge? Atilla quickly routs and kills the army crossing the bridge and runs to the other side re-positioning there killing the other army.

[Ephialtes The Dog]

Attila16 is ok in my opinion, having won several battles like that myself.

[Roman14]

that sucks i always make sure when i take rome i have only the best men and at least 5 generals

[Internazionale]

Yeah, but Rome is different. Rome is Rome, all the other cities is just a piece of cake.Except the damn Amazon city in the Russian steppes surrounded by forests and guarded by angry female Amazon chariot riders and Bestbuy elephants, lol -__-

[zeuxis the mighty]

GCS campaign

4 units of armoured hoplites
vs.
3 stacks of besieging Brutii Romans (early and late legions, lots of light and normal auxillia, equites and roman cav)

wooden walls and they had 3 rams
the phalanxes held well but a large mass of cavalry broke through in the chaos. Once the battle was back under control I routed the remaining troops and won with a total of 67 troops

[Roman14]

my hardest battel i was greek going aganst the brutii 600 men the scippii 600-700(both had generals) they mainly had early legionay cohorts no cavalry me 500 hoplites(i just had armored hoplites)No general amazingly i won but at a price.

[Cmdr_Sdxo]

I guess BI victories count too.. Ok, so I'm playing the campaign as the Berbers on h/h and WRE comes to siege my settlement of Tingi. They had a full stack, mostly comitatenses, limitanei and 2 german imperial bodyguards . I had 3 desert chieftains, many hillmen and few desert archers. At the start of the battle my archers stopped their two siege towers, and their ram but they couldn't stop the ladders, so it was up to my brave hillmen to repel them. The hillmen slaughtered many romans because the units climbing ladders are in a huge disadvantage, but they still managed to prevail and more and more comitatenses came to the walls. Eventually the romans slaughtered nearly everyone on the walls,opened the gates and then their cavalry charged. As soon as they entered, they got squashed between 3 desert chieftains charging at them from the front and the sides and in a stroke of luck, their general and the other family member got killed. After routing and severely damaging their bodyguard units(lost a family member in the process, peace be upon him) I retreated my DCs to the plaze, waiting for the rest of the comitatenses(heavy inf) and limitaneis(spearmen). They still had a huge advantage in numbers, so it was a process of "flank, charge rear,flee,repeat" for a good while until they all broke and ran... Lost my general in the process and had only 27 men total left when it was finally over.

[spykid55]

Hmmm i havent watched him yet, but ill try

[Internazionale]

Well, yesterday I destroyed an army of Brutii that had over 1000 more men than me as the Macedon using Alexanders Tactics!

I formed a echelon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_formation
Like Alexander The Great did! Ill show you a screenshot of how it looked like.

PS: This was from a custom battle to show you somewhat how it looked like ;(

[Garnier]

I've had plenty of those in the SPQR mod. One time I think it was my 8th Legion that was attacked repeatedly by spanish during the conquest of Iberia, it was beaten down to only 1500 men (out of around 3000 at full strength), and I had no good legions to replace it with on this particular front. I was then attacked by three spanish stacks, total of 9000 men. I formed a circle, waited til they attacked, then somehow burst my 120 cavalry out through their lines, and repeatedly charged into their rear, while being chased by spearmen round and round the chaotic battle. In the end, I only had 350 men left of which only 150 were legionaries.