"That'd make a great movie..."

[Emperor Leo]

Do you ever play TW and take a certain General on an epic adventure (either by accident or on purpose) and think, "That'd be a great movie / book!"? I enjoy the roleplay aspect of the games and love to forge legacies for my Family Members / Generals. I know that AARs are extremely popular, but most are about a Faction, rather than a certain character. So, let's hear about your unsung Alexanders, William Wallaces and Caesers!

Here's mine:

King Charles the Merciless

Basically, I was playing a Denmark campaign and the time period was still fairly early. Prince Charles was my young, aspiring general and Heir Apparent. After years of supressing rebel forces in Danish lands and building up a large army under his control, the Holy Roman Empire and their allies, Poland, waged war upon Denmark. Shortly after the start of the war, King Knud died and Stettin fell the the Polish armies. The fate of the Kingdom of Denmark now fell into King Charles' hands. His army stands alone in enemy lands. Rather than attempt to reclaim Stettin, Charles boldly rampaged into Polish lands, killing all that defied him. He and his army captured Thorn, then Breslau. Looting wherever he went. Meanwhile, Hamburg was being constantly hammered by HRE attacks. Charles marched on Stettin and kept his promise, liberating the town from Polish rule. The biggest army the HRE would send besieged Hamburg, in an effort to finally crush the stronghold. On the day of the battle, when all hope was lost, Charles and his army arrived, roaring into battle, breaking the siege and the back of the HRE army. Charles had left the lands of Denmark a young, naive heir and returned at the age of 52 as King Charles the Merciless. His wealth countless and his army a hardened, loyal, brotherhood.

Hope you enjoyed. Not sure if this post should be in the AAR forum. Oh, well, if it is, someone please move it!

[Ged]

Today I had an unwanted family member, so I sent him from Constantinople all the way up to Denmark. He had a band of mercenaries only, and fought many battles in foreign lands against the brigands that infested them. He moved into Sweden and captured a city, then rebelled against my rule.

[Old Geezer]

I just completed a Danish retrofit campaign and the first heir to the starting king got to level 10 in all catagories (dread not chiv.) except piety which was8. He was merciless and despicable and scared and the population fled when he entered a city! I guess he was everyone's stereotype of the vikings. He had so many traits that I'd get tired of reading through them. Even Charles Bronson couldn't have been bad enough to play him.

[The Sundance Kid]

I had a young French knight who inherited the heirdom to the kingdom due to the annoying heir system, so I got rid of him so my true-blood heir could take the crown. However, this knight, a certain Jean Malville, had a son before he was sent off to die in the middle of the North Sea, who grew up, married, had a son, and continued the Malville bloodline until the Americas were founded. Suddenly, the current King died without warning, miraculously still from the line of the first King. Another man was crowned, but Malville's heir, Luc, became the heir to the throne. When the King died from plague, Luc Malville became King of France like his ancestor shouldve done hundreds of years ago.

I like fate like that.

[Pivra]

Mine is more like...court intrigues and pride and prejudice kinda like movie.. haha....in most of my byzantine campaign..... most of my generals would have had hemophilia or downsyndrome.....due to intermarriages... the Komnenid Dynasty has 4 main families... Rogerios, Bouches, Comnenus and Caspax and they somehow kinda rotate a lot creating many many princesses and I marry them around these 4 families to prevent weird family names to enter the line, the Rogerios line had this period of many daughters that didnt turn into viable princesses so it was broken into 4 more families (Olaskos, Branas, 'of Trebizond' and Michalopoulos) and the Rogerios line kinda disappeared but all of the families can be traced back to Alexius. John and Constance (princess of France) formed the Rogerios and Caspax lines whose princesses are often given to the HRE and France and vice versa (they are more western than greek in blood). Andronicus and a princess from the Rossi family of Milan became the next emperor after his brother and continued the Comnenus line and Isaac's family formed the Bouches line.

anyway... they intermarriage a lot as genepool in the west became more and more narrow. Milan was destroyed by France and HRE so the Comnenus family had to get Russian princesses instead of Italian ones

[HaveFallen]

Wow haha I thought I was the only one. +rep for the story.

I want to try one, here's from my campaign right now...

A crusade, A crusade...was called onto the Holy Land!, Jerusalem was taken back into the hands of the Caliphate. King Agiarmo Ragusa called apon his best general, Giamo Altaiva and his grand army (around 4000 men). They were to sail to Jerusalem and retake it.

After months at sea they hit land, apon landing an army was already there to greet them. The battle seems like it lasted forever (like an hour and a half). Though it was a victory, the battle had cost them 1/4th the army. Still determined, the pressed on, and they saw it...Jerusalem!

Many battles were fought before the holy city was taken (Too many stacks so I had to get at them one by one). It was a great victory, at the cost of thousands of souls. With only little men left (only 513) there was no chance of surviving an attack. The only choice to make was to abandon the city.:hmmm:

Something had gone wrong!! There's no boats!! (Damn Turks sunk all my boats!!) The only choice was to go and march to Tunis. The walk took out everything, the great general's men were dying one by one with no food, water, and the heat of the sun out in the desert. The Great Crusader never returned, lost somewhere... (He died in Tripoli)

Oy, longer than I thought. Well, bye.

[Naxon]

*sob* ^ that story was so touching.

anyway, i've got one too.
my venetian general conquered constantinople when he was 20. then a crusade was called and he travelled to jerusalem, fighting many battles on the way. when he reached the city, only half of his men were still alive.

but he won yet again, and he became king of jerusalem. but the saracens sent a huge army with superior numbers. but only he and the cavalry were fast enough to get away, so he left the infantry to their doom and never looked back.
just 6 months later the city had fallen. but he was and still is a hero.

[Emperor Tom]

I played BI and I can't remember the guys name but he was a Sarmatian. I'll refer to him as...Vex.

Sarmatia, the home of the Sarmatians is under seige. The Huns have surrounded the Sarmatians forcing them to retreat behind their poorly fortified walls. In a matter of days the setlement is penetrated. The Sarmatians are forced from their homes and are pushed to the far most North/east. They now follow a new king, one of Nobel birth. His name is Vex King of the Sarmatians. Vex whom was a strong beleiver of the Sarmatian religion wants to find a heavily secluded place away from the rest of the world (can't remember the settlement name but its the farthest to the east in the north, that one parthia had next to scythia). He reigned for over 20 years as king, without any wars. His people were happy and everyone lived in peace. Until one day a great Sassinid army came from the south to invade the new Sarmation homeland. Vex banded together what he could, a group of runaway slaves and a group of brave women called the Virgin Archers. To the north he sent for reinforcements. Vex was a great and courageous king. He waited not for his reinforcements and attacked the attackers. His son and his men arrived on the battlefield much later than he expected. Vex and his small army were exausted but bravely fought on never fleeing the scene. Vex spotted the enemy general and without warning attacked. His evil son told his horse- archers to open fire on the Sassinids ans His father. Vex fought on and killed the enemy general, dispite all of the arrow fire. As he celebrated the victory and arrow struck him off his horse killing him. He was 48 years old. But his evil son would not rule long. A rebellion took place in the homeland and after a 2 year reign Vex's son was brutally murdered in the streets of the Sarmation capitol. The Sarmations Horded again. This time a good leader would take charge. Vex's second son. He would go on to defeat the Roxolani and Sassinids. He would later wage war with the Eastern Roman empire and ally himself with the Eastern Rebels.

[Surgeon]

Heh, I recall a particularly interesting escapade a general of mine went through.

The Pope calls a crusade on Acre, a stronghold far off in the Holy Lands, and pretty much all of Catholic Europe answers the call. A brave English general, whose name I forget (we'll call him Ed), embarks on the journey, taking with him a small host of elite knights and longbowmen, on the way bolstering his ranks with mercenary sergeants, knights and fanatics.

Unfortunately, England's war with France has recently ended due to the Pope sticking his long nose into other people's business again. Because of this the kingdom is unable to acquire much-needed territories on the coast of the Mediterranean, and thus Ed is unable to take a shortcut to Acre by sea. Still, unafraid of the long and perilous journey, he marches off.

Everything goes well for a while, and the crusaders get farther than expected, treading onto the lands of the traitorous Greek Emperor, on whom England has but recently declared war for attacking one of its close allies, Hungary. Huge Byzantine armies march past Ed and his troops, glowering. But seeing that he was on a holy journey they walk past, deciding it was best to let him leave their lands of his own accord. Which is what he plans to do himself, in fact.

But what's this? The crusading army of the Holy Roman Empire has landed in the Holy Lands and took Acre overnight, ending the crusade! Ed is stranded in the middle of the Greek Empire, no longer with a definite mission in mind and a fair target for the enemy! He makes in a beeline back to Europe, hoping to go unnoticed.

Too late! Three huge Byzantine armies are converging on his position. He now has a choice to try and run past the enemy or make for the coast, hire a galley and escape by sea. In a necessary tradeoff, Ed sends his only spy to scout out the seaside, which reveals several fleets of the fearsome Byzantine Fireships. Escape by sea is out of question.

The crusaders run past one of the Byzantine armies, hiding behind a mountain range. All three of the Greek armies persue, determined to never let Ed and his men leave these lands. However, the mountains provide Ed with a small advantage, and none of the enemy are able to close. From where the crusaders are now, it seems that they can easily reach Europe intact.

But alas! A fourth Byzantine army emerges out of a pass up ahead, blocking the way! Ed takes the long way around, circling another mountain. His spy, having caught up with the army, alerts him of yet another, fifth army that is closing on his position from the southwest. The crusaders are completely surrounded!

Luckily, the spy's intelligence has allowed Ed to remain unseen by the fifth army. The other four enemy hordes have apparently lost their way somewhere in the mountains, and are also nowhere in sight. Seeing his opportunity, Ed and his crusaders jump into a nearby cabbage patch and lie low.

The fifth and fourth Greek armies march past, bewildered, to eventually meet up with the other three armies coming up from behind. As soon as they're past, the crusaders bolt to another cabbage patch farther down the road, and lie low again. One of the Greek armies walks past in search of them, but does not see them.

Once they're out of sight, the crusaders run on. But now there's nowhere to hide! The Greeks are quick to learn of their location and close for the kill. Europe is now in sight, and Ed and his men make for Venice, a neutral faction that lives mostly off trade rather than war. The crusaders set foot on the border...

Only to be ambushed from the bushes by the Byzantine army that had gone on ahead of them! The ambush fails, but with no allied territories nearby, Ed cannot retreat and is forced to make a stand. A fierce battle ensues and the crusaders suffer many casualties. The battle soon becomes so disorganized that it's every man for himself while Ed and his bodyguard gallop around trying to help individual units in turn. The tide swings back and forth until a cunning enemy cavalry charge from the rear routs a whole three units of crusader sergeants. The archers and crossbows are soon to follow, and by now the knights and fanatics are almost all dead. The enemy surrounds Ed and his bodyguard fall one by one, until but a handful is left and Ed himself is playing the take-hit animation as if he's having a stroke every few seconds. It won't be long before he dies and the battle is lost. Wishing to go down in a blaze of glory, Ed sounds his horn for the last time.

Bless their souls! All the routing crusaders have turned around and are charging to the rescue, while archers send arrows into the enemy's back. The Greek general is trampled, horse and all, by the sergeants, and the rest of his army quickly turn tail and run. Ed is left standing on the hill surrounded by the bloodied and exhausted tatters that were once a great crusading army, not quite believing their victory.

The other Greek armies are closing in, but the way is free and the distance short, and Ed and his rag-tag band of survivors hike over the border, beyond which the Byzantines do not pursue. Ed makes it back to England to lead other armies in England's name, but the poor fellow never really recovered from the ordeal, acquiring traits like "scars of war" and "raving mad" (or something along those lines).

Yeah... really long one but I found it to be my most epic adventure in Medieval 2.

[Metellus]

^^ Awesome, I enjoyed reading that!

[Roman Knight]

^+rep for awesome story^

EDIT: Looks like I'll have to spread it around before I can give it to you again.