[SS AAR] Templars

[s0meguy]

SS6 Templars AAR


Significant battles:
Cairo battle: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...11#post2979811
The end of the Egyptian empire: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...27#post2980827

Building a nation: (storyline/info about campaign map strategy/characters interact with each other)
#1

Sorry for the lack of dialogue and interaction between characters in the beginning of the AAR. I did do it at my latest entries.


Note: reply if you like it,that way I can see if there's any interest, otherwise I might as well stop the AAR and just play the campaign.
---------------------

So I decided to make a templars AAR for those who are interested.

The difficulty settings are H/H.

The plan is to stay friendly with Egypt for a while, build up armies and then attempt to take Egypts important settlements. If that fails and Egypt comes after me with their uber 1 full stack army spam per turn, I'll abandon the middle east, sack Jerusalem and destroy other worthwhile buildings I have in the ME Then take a few ships to settle in Britain, conquering large wealthy cities on the way and then sacking them to get wealthy for my Britain campaign.

Of course a lot of interesting things can happen that may change my plans.

Here are the first things that happened:

- I make a load of sergeant spearmen and cavalry at tortosa for 5 or so turns
- Money gets low, so I take Damascus
- I make some Templar spearmen at Damascus and take Jerusalem

Sorry no pictures of battles up till now because I didn't know I was going to make a AAR when I did all this.



- I take Acre for a bit more income to support armies

- current policy: only build cheap military buildings and economical buildings that return their own costs within a few turns. A port, a few barracks/stables but that's it.

Current status:




Other things:

- The only battles I had until now were the battles to take the cities
- I put a spy in Gaza to hopefully keep tabs on Egypt.
- I move my cardinal a bit to convert muslims
- I built/am building a few town halls and brothels to be able to train agents

I hope you enjoy.

Comments are very welcome.

PS English isn't my first language. So if I make some stupid mistakes you know why.

PS2 lol, check the lake east of Jerusalem, there's a pirate ship trapped in it

[Laconian]

Good start with a few more battles in the future it will be awesome.

[s0meguy]

The battle for Antioch

Egypts armies are moving closer to jerusalem and my current cities aren't capable of supporting more military units so I'm going to expand north.

My bloodthursty heir sieges Antioch:


Men, get in position!


Taking the walls


The Templars took the gate and my cavalry is rushing through


My cavalry is defending the city square


End result...

[s0meguy]

I take Adana

And Egypts being naughty

Slaughter them!


Spy has opened the gates, attack!


Men get in position to break their final stand!


Charge!


yeah


Egypt puts their army at my border and I position my fleet to attack their homeland in case they attack:


...but they make a wise decision... or not
Notice the fort they made on the east side of the shot:

[Vor]

Try cropping those pictures.

[s0meguy]

Try cropping those pictures.

edit: fixed.

Oh and preparing to attack Egypt:

Sold some expensive but useless buildings in Jerusalem, building more units.

[s0meguy]

I found out how to resize all the images at once, bear with me for a bit

Preparing more... I know the suspense is killing you

[s0meguy]

The blitz of egypt



Get ready men


Attack!


There are a few large Egyptian armies, I think they are southeast of my position.

[s0meguy]

The battle for Cairo

Next turn I get sandwiched between Cairo's garrison and the full stack army I was talking about earlier:



I set myself up in the corner, forcing the AI to walk all the way



My heavy cavalry and generals part from the army, preparing to flank the enemy:



The first Egyptian army:



My heavy cavalry team attacking their light cavalry behind their army and their general also comes out to play:
(taken during a thunder flash)


Light cavalry pretty much dead, engaging general: (man this one took long)


General dead, I crash my heavy cavalry and light cavalry into the backs of the infantry and they start routing instantly:


The next screenshots are unfortunately very vague because of the bad weather. You can barely see the units but if you want to see them, just copy the linsk of the above pictures into the browsers address bar and change the number behind it. Anyhow:







Executed and sacked.

[s0meguy]

The other 2 settlements only had a general...



Sending my spy southwards and going to try to conquer the rest of eqypt before they have a chance to rebuild.

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

I like this AAR.

I'd love to read a little bit more details on characters.

[Duke_of_Bavaria]

This AAR could get interesting but the lack of combat pictures makes the combat reports boring. You got pictues of an army standing... Not interesting. Try removing the map etc. and take cinematical pictures, close ups etc.

[Dontom]

Very nice AAR so far, and things look good for you!

[s0meguy]

edit: thanks for all the tips, I'll try to do something about it in the next few reports. I will make it more detailed and describe the smaller battles too

You mean you want to know what they are thinking and saying to each other? I'll think about it. My Templars certainly don't fit with the historical ones though, sacking etc conquering everything. Anyways, a few turns and minor battles later:


Notice the 2 stacks in the lower right corner

[s0meguy]

Grandmaster Hugues is sitting in the throne room of the palace in Al Aqaba, surrounded by guards, advisors and servants.

A messenger walks in and bows.

"Speak."

"Sire, I have come to report to you that Damietta, Cairo and Alexandria have fallen to our forces. Ansehalm has also defeated a large army that was hiding near Cairo lead by none other than Suwayn. He has been killed on the spot in addition to the countless soldiers that we captured."

Hagues nods, smiles and turns his head to one of his servants: "Give this man one of the luxurious guest quarters and take care of anything else he may want for the next few days".

Servant: "Yes sir" and walks off with the messenger.

After the two left the room Hagues commanded everyone but his most trusted guards and advisors to leave with a hand gesture. After everyone left he nodded that the head advisor could approach.

Advisor: "Sire, we're surrounded by egyptian armies. if we don't retreat within 2 weeks their armies will be too close to Al Aqaba and we can't escape anymore."

Grandmaster Hugues: "I agree, we lack the force needed to repel them."

"Jacques?" (=personal assistant)

"Yes lord?"

"Send a messenger to my sons west of here and tell them of our situation with these two armies approaching, and send what units they can. And have the fleet move to their location so that it can transport the armies faster. After that order the fleet to stay around so that in case of an emergency we can quickly transport many units over a great distance. Our local army must be able to move out in 5 days. Send Kurt Becker north to negotiate with the Turks, we can barely afford a war with them now."

Jacques nods and walks out of the room.

Hagues turns his head to the advisor: "I believe that we should head back to Jerusalem and defend our land from there. They will probably attack Gaza as well because of it's weak garrison, and even if they succeed, once we have destroyed any army that may have come for Jerusalem, we will be in a good position to destroy the other army and advance southeast to destroy the Egyptian threat. Would you agree?".

Advisor: "I concur, sir. But we will have to wait and see if Egypt will throw any more at us, there's a large chance that we haven't seen the last of them. Then again, the cities southeast of us are not in a very good position because they are far from eachother and they are not exactly known for their military machine."

The Grandmaster then stretches his legs and walks slowly and relaxedly with his head advisor at his side to the balcony to enjoy the sight of the city. He realizes he might have to give the city up for a while so that he can regroup to destroy the Egyptians.

Picture below: situation at Al Aqaba and the family tree. Ansehalm is the lower left general.

[s0meguy]

*The day before the army leaves*

Jacques: M'lord a scout has found another Egyptian settlement north of here. If we conquer it we might be able to distract one of Egypt's armies and buy more time. (points at the location on a map hanging on the wall)

Hagues: "Then we will pay them a visit. It is on the way to Jerusalem anyway, because the Egyptians have blocked the path west of here to Jerusalem".

When Hagues' army that left Al aqaba arrived at the mentioned town, it was barely garrisoned.



After sieging it for 2 days Hagues told the officers to prepare for assault. In thirty minutes all units were lined up and ready to attack. Hagues' gave the officers their orders and smiled to himself... "let the mayham commence"





After a mere hour the battle was over and soldiers hiding in the village had been mostly killed.

Immediatly after Hagues said that he must leave the troops to take charge of the garrison of Jerusalem to repel the invaders. So he left and left the army behind so that they could rest.

[s0meguy]

The death of the last Egyptian Sultan and the end of the Egyptian empire.



It turned out that one of the armies had set it's eyes on taking back Cairo. This was not a very smart move of the Egyptians since now we have the manpower to defeat them at Jerusalem, and Ansehalm will have the manpower needed to destroy the other army. Sitting/lying in a comfy hammock in his tent Hugues was reflecting on the recent events. As ordered, the officers in Jerusalem assembled a huge army from the other cities surrounding it and he is now underway to the Egyptian army that took Al Aqaba. A scouting party reported yesterday that the army is already moving out of Al Aqaba, towards Cairo. But Hagues is determined to intercept it. He had already sent out a message to the armies near Cairo that the Egyptian army was coming, and to cancel the request for additional reinforcements.

It has been reported that the general of this army assaulting Al Aqaba is none other than the Sultan of Egypt. This man is not a very good general and he knows it. This could be an indication that he's out of capable generals and is having a last attempt to regain power over his old lands.



The Sultan tried to make a run for it but noone escapes the wrath of Hugues.






After a trip through the mountains Hagues and his army arrived at the Sultan's army.



After a few devastating charges into the infantry, the general and his bodyguards showed up and the cavalry team surrounded and trapped them.



In the mayhem of battle, Hugues sighted the Sultan. Immediatly he went for him, his bodyguard riding along him. When he arrived, all but he of his bodyguard was left alive. Hugues felt the adrenaline pumping through his body and revelled in the smell of war and the sounds of men attacking eachother. Immediatly Hugues jumped off his mount grabbed one of his mens spears and threw it at the Sultan's horse. It was a direct hit and the horse fell along with the Sultan. Surrounded by Hugues men, who were staring in awe at Hagues' display, Hugues unsheathed his sword and kicked the Sultan so that he came to lie on his back, then sunk his sword into his chest while the two men were staring at each other.

After their Sultan's death their troups were routed with little difficulty.

[stormer]

Good AAR, i would build up my economy for the next 5-8 turns.

[s0meguy]

First thing I'll do is take all the rebel settlements and yeah create a good economy. Then we'll see what happens, I think I'll send a few armies to Britain anyway. Or to the Byzantine capital, Constantinople and tear their empire apart.

If anyone reading this has any feedback, especially on the quality and how I should improve it, I'd love to hear!

[Ride Ze Lightning]

Hey, great AAR

I would focus on economy for a few turns then go for Constantinople.
Although, it would be interesting to watch an empire expand on both sides of the world (if you take england)

EDIT: oh yeah, cropping images. (if you have the time.. )
You could cut out sections of the screen, instead of posting the entire screenshot to pretty it up. It takes a while though, and you are doing a good job as it is!