Epic battles

**Soul Firez** · December 20, 2009, 10:34 AM

I made this thread so that any who are having an interesting campaign may wish to share there joys or lows at a battle that turned the tide

Now i just had a trully epic battle while in a scotish campaign testing my files for my coming soon sub mod(testing is kinda a lie there ready i am just enjoying myself now LOL)

The battle was for york a commoner by name of william wallce recently knighted (he became a family member instead of a plain general for his brilliant killing of english scum ) was attempting to do what the scotish lords thought impossible (but had sent him to do it was a mission given to capture york) but impressed with his fighting the black prince of scotland (prince edmund but he has 9 dread points now) had ridden his army down to aid the scotish sir wallace.

Little did they know that york was being organised by a robin of locksley ( i didnt damn it all i made him tough as nails) and his defences where well ready for an attack . Even more unkown and equally fearfull was the king of england himself had been riding to yorks defense. A man known as king richard the lion hearted freshly back from the crusades (he left a prince and returned a king).

Seeing the siege of york richard rode his men hard to the battle drawing it out into the fields of york (great i always prefered field battles to sieges) the numbers drawn scotland was out numbered aprox 3 to 2 and a fair number of heavy horse to his count to .

4 armies locked in battle with the black prince facing the larger force of richard wallace facing locksleys army and locksley taking to the trees middle ground and firing to all corners of the battle field his sherwod archers most deadly in range and accuracy(really they killed more men than anyone else in the battle. the battle was very even but with the english slowly starting to win (damn the modified XBAI me and mekill worked on ) Strangely mid battle wallace broke away from the fighting and charged across the field (he was being AI run) was this cowardice!!!

No he had broken of from the main forces but had rushed to the aid of the black prince who was surrounded and about to be put to death by king richard( i tell you i was getting swamped as i controled edmund and his armies). The charge was amazing he broke through the lines of 2 units of armoured swordsmen to rush to the rear of richard and strike him down he fell in the attempt ( a great loss ) but with the death of there king and the black prince back in the open field and on the charge the english fled falling under horse shoe and lance.

Many lives had been lost but all that remained was the few stragler english and the devilish robin hood. It cost many more lives but finally the upstart robin was struck down (thanks to taro m for allowing me to use and modify one of his models to use as the new robin )

As he fell the rest who had little hope fled for there lives leaving york in the hands of the scotish and the balck prince edmund.

But is my celebration to be cut short for no sooner had i claimed york but a full stack of danes landed right next to me , are there eyes turned to capturing it from me ???(damn the new modified XCAI by mekill and me with new improved naval invasions that has everyone including france etc able to invade britania never again will it be a safe place to build a power base to conqueer the world)

**Grislok** · December 20, 2009, 10:37 AM

Sweet!

**YourKaiser** · December 20, 2009, 07:37 PM

(Yeah i know this isnt an 'epic battle' but i just i might just throw an input in the thread lol)

Basically me desperately trying to destroy Ireland with a very low amount of troops (Yeah it makes absolutely no sense to jump over england and attack the irish, but ... yeah)

Im completely bankrupt too.. Im kinda new at the game but the upkeep for the armies are just so huge

FEELS GOOD!

**The Holy Pilgrim** · December 21, 2009, 08:07 PM

Originally Posted by YourKaiser

(Yeah i know this isnt an 'epic battle' but i just i might just throw an input in the thread lol)

Basically me desperately trying to destroy Ireland with a very low amount of troops (Yeah it makes absolutely no sense to jump over england and attack the irish, but ... yeah)

Im completely bankrupt too.. Im kinda new at the game but the upkeep for the armies are just so huge

FEELS GOOD!

A cool strategy that my grandpa taught me was to find a settlement with a very small garrisson, sack it, and then sell (destroy) all sellable (destroyable) buildings. You do that by clicking on the town (city) tab and right-clicking on the building and there will be a button in the bottom left corner that should say sell (destroy) building. That will give you tons of cash.

Just be careful because Dave put a garrisson script in some cities that may completely screw you over.

**Frunk** · December 20, 2009, 10:01 PM

I'm playing as the HRE in a single-player right now and finding it to be the easiest campaign I've played so far (compared to Norway, Spain, Portugal, Milan, Wales, Scotland, and Venice), but in terms of battles I've had a fair few while eradicating the Danes from the mainland (and now altogether because the bastards breached the ceasefire and tried to invade - failing miserably), as well as plenty of rebel battles because with 15 provinces there are just so many. If anybody can tell me where in my directory I can find the screenshots I take it would be appreciated - because I've looked and can't find them.

**Soul Firez** · December 21, 2009, 03:07 AM

it is found in the main file of med2 not KGCM in a file called tgas (no matter what mod you take screenshots in they go to this file.)

If you download my submod when released i would ask you to try HRE again ( it will have a few new things you dont have now ) i think you may find the difficulty (atleast after turn 40 ) somewhat different

**Frunk** · December 21, 2009, 04:16 AM

Shall do. I've been waiting for your mod since September, do hurry mate!

Also, there's one thing I'm wondering how I would go about modding - I want to put a land-bridge connecting Britain and possibly Scandinavia with the European mainland.

**Soul Firez** · December 21, 2009, 04:36 AM

There is a file in the maps base folder called map features .tga this has features such as land bridges on it (there the little green lines) add such to this features where you want the land bridge and then delete the map.rwm file and start the game it will rebuild the map with your land bridge.

Warning though such changes can vastly change the flow of a campaign may i suggest that you auto run a campaign without the change then when you have made the change run another auto campaign to see how this affects the campaign AI

Oh and if you try my submod (releasing early next year) you may find that it wont be needed as you can see from my pic denmark had no trouble sailing to britania at all niether does france or any other faction . You will find that the campaigns will run very differently in the fact that no one is longer bound by land the sea has become a play ground for all (making naval dominance a far greater importance)

**Frunk** · December 21, 2009, 08:57 PM

I see. The main reason I wanted to do it was because I noticed in BETA testing for AoD that the addition of the landbridge meant that British factions with no mainland settlements could participate in (or be a real target of) crusades. Will your sub-mod address this?

**LemuelG** · December 22, 2009, 03:35 AM

Hi

I've been playing a really fun campaign as Portugal. My epic battle is more of a war - my final showdown with Spain (once my best buddy).

Context: AD1285 - Western Europe has been at peace for a long time (over a hundred turns), since the Moors were driven out of Iberia and England was wiped-out by a coalition of France, Wales and Scotland. Portugal (moi) has taken the majority of the old Moorish territories and has used her wealth to fully upgrade all her cities, and finance overseas military adventures - the Americas, Middle-East, Italy, a campaign in Europe that wiped-out the Danes (and reviving the HRE) when they looked like becoming too powerful, and a bold invasion of Ireland - who were the third-largest army in the world!

Gunpowder has only recently been discovered, and Portugal has blown it's fortune of a few hundred grand upgrading it's military... to become second only to the Mongols; then disaster strikes - the Plague sweeps through almost all of her cities at once! Finances deep in the red, most armies sick and dying... things go from very good to very shaky in the space of a couple of turns... there is only one answer to this situation - war! I need Spain's cities for my victory, the target is clear.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**The Holy Pilgrim** · December 22, 2009, 08:49 AM

Great pics and post!

Also, great job on your battles. What difficulty do you play on? I can't believe you got a heroic victory on all of your battles

+rep

**Soul Firez** · December 22, 2009, 10:14 AM

brilliant stuff lemuelG another plus rep from me

and yes reece as i say all factions will take to the water freely be it on crusade or normal invasion (not as freely as a land bridge but to do such would send england to its death very quickly at the hands of the french , the channel is a protection for them one the french will now cross but with a good navy england holds it own. I have watched england join a crusade and sail this army across to the mainland(havent seen it in return yet as i havent in testing seen a crusade called on britania but i will test by starting one against england to see how they manage it , i am sure the french will answer with glee.

I have also boosted england (only for the AI not human players) as i wanted them to still be around for the hundred year war and the arrival of joan of arc (without england she wont arive) and give france some compertition . this has ment i had to boost scotland and wales to cope with england but the balance around britania is alot more stable with no one getting wiped out ( well unless a human does it ) for quite a while i did weaken ireland (again onlyAI not for a player although they will face a stronger england wales and scotland now as mentioned)

i did this due to there very strategic position in terms of this game they are sheltered by the rest of britania and can build up a powerfull force (they still can but it takes much longer and in many cases england will come back and reassert themselves over the irish after being kicked out) all this is in terms of this area being AI run ofcourse human interaction in the region will change greatly what happens

**Frunk** · December 30, 2009, 04:41 AM

Originally Posted by Soul Firez

yes reece as i say all factions will take to the water freely be it on crusade or normal invasion (not as freely as a land bridge but to do such would send england to its death very quickly at the hands of the french , the channel is a protection for them one the french will now cross but with a good navy england holds it own. I have watched england join a crusade and sail this army across to the mainland(havent seen it in return yet as i havent in testing seen a crusade called on britania but i will test by starting one against england to see how they manage it , i am sure the french will answer with glee.

Were the English holding any settlements in mainland Europe at the time? I ask because the AI Welsh, Scots and Irish, as well as the Norwegians (as Scandinavia is effectively an island too in-game) cannot crusade to any mainland targets unless they have mainland holding, like the English more often than not do. If a target is Edinburgh for example, it works the other way, with only factions with holdings in Great Britain being able to join.

Even though the English probably didn't launch their crusade from their French holdings, from what I've tested it is still the only reason they can. If you're worried about the French having a free path to London, you could always add in an English-held middle point, like how Calais served in AoD. Since Calais doesn't match the time period, Dover would be perfect as it is so close to France and was always in real life of great strategic importance because of this.

**dafuu** · January 05, 2010, 06:40 PM

ohh thats just epic

Why cant i get these big stacks of enemy stacks?

I guess you all play on vh/vh but have you modded the ai with something or is it the "vanilla" version of KGCM?

**Soul Firez** · January 06, 2010, 06:29 AM

Nothing vanillia about the AI i am using even KGCM normal Ai is far above vanillia Ai but i am hoping this will give a greater challenge indeed. Many times the Ai will throw out small stacks and stop away from your territories and then send more and more little stacks and converge them into big stacks

personally i think Miikill is a genious as the Ai was mostly his work with a few touches done by me to make it respond in how i felt it should go with the campaign outlines

**Grislok** · December 22, 2009, 11:17 AM

Man that was nice LemuelG....Bloody Scots!

**LemuelG** · December 22, 2009, 02:03 PM

Thankyou gentlemen

Holy Pilgrim - I play on VH; and not all my victories are heroic

(in fact, it took me over a hundred turns before I got my frst one!) - I just posted those because they were the decisive battles. It is not very interesting to see my half-stack destroy a Spanish quarter-stack! Leadership is very important, a good general will give you the edge over a captain-led enemy army. Furthermore, pike-and-shot tactics are extremely effective - if they are lead by a high-dread general you will slaughter almost anything in your way.

You can see in the battle of Valladolid the Spanish are led by two very good generals (including their prince - it's like that loading-screen quote "both sides were commanded by royal princes, and they slaughtered each other mercilessly") and it was very hard for me to win.

My armies were about twice as many as the Spanish, but most were overseas at the time - I was outnumbered about 3:1! The key to victory was dividing the Spanish armies, and taking them out one (or two or three) at a time - at one point Spain had eight stacks outside Leon!

I take many screen-shots, and I was thinking of doing an AAR on this campaign, is anyone interested?

**Soul Firez** · December 23, 2009, 07:08 AM

Certainly it would be nice to read a good AAR and it seems you have a almost ceasar like quality to your war fare LOL

Look forward to the read

**LemuelG** · December 24, 2009, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Soul Firez

Certainly it would be nice to read a good AAR and it seems you have a almost ceasar like quality to your war fare LOL

Look forward to the read

Ok, that's enough encouragement for me!

Let's see some more epic battles guys!

**xeryx** · December 29, 2009, 04:01 PM

@ Soul Firez..those are some very promising battle reports! Would like to see more screen shots though

Miikll really understands the importance of balancing the XAI to each mod, he also is always improving things in my absence to keep progress going forward. Kudos to both of YOU..I cannot wait to play! Soon, I will be ready to dive back into modding as well.