My most epic battle of all time

[Massive_attack]

In 6.1, I had true "total war" momment.

I was playing as the HRE, and was fairly late in (i had 2 citadels producing gothic knights) when France and the Reich decided it was time for one massive brawl for the fate of western europe.

The french were numerically superior but i fought with tact and zeal, and i had genoa and aragon on my side.

After a year or two of stalemate field conflicts on the french and german side of the border, i decided that drastic methods were needed. I pulled all my northern Imperial armies together (Army group A, as i called it, because im a history dork) and launched a huge offensive on Belgium, determined to sieze the valuable and rich port from the french and take some heat off of the central front. Army group A was around 15,000 soldiers, give or take a few thousand to casualties on the way.

Outside of Bruges, the empire won a stunning victory, adding the city to our empire by sacrificing one of our militia armies outside of the walls to frenchmen while an elite force stormed the city. All that remained was to wipe out the main french armies on the outskirts of Bruges. Thus, 3 full stacks of the reich, the meat of Army Group A, fought the french in an epic battle, with Xfire on hand, I took pictures:

The reich assembles:

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The opposition: (Note, you can see my vast horde in the distance )

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The Armies clash !

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The melee has commenced:

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The rout commences, the french take more kindly to running than fighting it seems !

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I didnt have the mind to take a picture of the results, sorry guys *facepalm*

However, i just felt like sharing this, feel free to tell of your own titanic clashes !

PS: to those wondering, there were 3 fullstack armies of HRE troops present, and two french. Despite how one sided this looks, they inflicted about 25% losses to my armies, probably around 5000 dead on my side (due to complete lack of tactics on my part)



EDIT: NOOO i posted this in sub mods, my bad ! someone move this to the stainless steel forum please !

[Caesar Clivus]

Moving thread

Nice account mate. Just wish I could see the screenshots from work

[Kawee]

I find it interesting that you said that it's fairly late into your campaign with citadels and what not, and all I saw was a bunch of militias

But hey, if I had such an epic battle of militias killing one another, I would just disregard the tactics as well. There is something very romantic about two long lines of men crashing and killing each other one guy at a time.

[Medieval American]

In 6.1, I had true "total war" momment.

Brilliance... +rep

[Massive_attack]

Funny you should mention my less than stellar army. Bear in mind the war had been on with france for some time. I had two citadels, and only a few other castles, most of which were anchors on my borders for military troops. The vast majority of my army comes from cities in the heart of the reich. The force i was commanding likely originated from Frankfurt, Nuremburg, or some other city similar to that.

Most of my professional troops are located in the central and southern fronts, (where the war had been focused previously) and my most elite army, the one outfitted with gothics and the like, was destroyed by france after they isolated the group and crushed it between 3 large professional armies on the outset of the war in the south-western reaches of my empire.

Plus, im fielding alot of men, and i do mean *ALOT* of troops. City based units are cheaper and have less upkeep. Makes them more useful for the slow grinding tug-o-war struggle i fought with france. Expensive flashy armies of knights are good for quick wars and victories, over a longer period they choke the war machine.

[JorisofHolland]

In short they lack availability. For every knight a citadel produces, your city spams out several (crappy) militias. Considering the fact five spear militia are more usefull than one (dismounted) knight and that you have a lot more cities than castles, simply throwing units at the enemy might be cheaper/better. Also, (pavise) crossbows and halbers/pikes are very usefull militias, I often stack them together with some professional knights/other heavy cavalry and win the battles! Though I can't recall the last time I've had such an epic fight

[Massive_attack]

Yeah Joris, it truly was an incredible thing to witness !

Lagged a bit though, but that has more to do with my disabling sprites i think. Ah well, it was still playable.

Now i kind of wish i kept that game going, and see what happened to the french. Ah well. You guys can feel free to add your own stories to this thread, id like to see/hear your own incredible hollywood-worthy battles !

[JorisofHolland]

I once had a very glorious defeat, I don't have pictures of it unfortunately, but it went like this:

In my Templar campaign I had established myself as a powerfull faction, my borders were secured by protectrates on all sides (Turks & Egypt, Kwarezm as ally) and I decided to take Hungary. Those guys controlled Bucharest so that would be my invasion point, the D-Day spot. In the war to follow, I mainly search for family members and killed those. You probably know what's coming: I found a smaller force of mine (half stack, professionals) trapped by several Hungarian fullstacks, all led by skilled generals. The "attacking" stack included the King and one of his sons, the other two were led by the Prince and another minor member of their house.

Being surrounded, I hid most my troops (mainly heavy calvalry) in the forest, to ambush the armies and try drive them away. It was a complete disaster. My infantry, few in numbers, melted away after contact with the fast hordes of Hungary. Repeated cavalry charges had not broken the enemy and for every man killed at least four seemed to take his place. Adding to that, my commander (a very skilled one, he had done almost all the fighting in Hungary) lay slain upon the battlefield, surrouned by dead foes. Luckily he had managed to take the Hungarian Prince with him. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Overlooking the battlefield, I made a desperate try to rout my foe by killing all his generals. My knights (mainly hospitallers) charged into the two "minor" family members and killed both without heavy losses since the charge was lethal. The AI decided to be smart and hid the King in a sea of soldiers. My men hired a boat, sailed to the King and slayed him. My army used to contain 500 soldiers, only about 25 managed to escape the slaughter. Of the almost 2500 Hungarians, nearly 1500 did not see the next sun rise. In fact, they were no longer Hungarians, merely Bridgands stalking the roads of my newest conquest (and a few lands that had turned rebel after the fall of the kingdom)

[BeingOwned:)SPQR]

Something like this I guess

[Point Blank]

Epic massacres FTW

[DeliCiousTZM]

i play huge aswell but ive never ever had such big battles as this i have max 1 group of 2500-3000 units perhaps at some point. like how can u afford 3 stacks of 4k units each ^^

[JorisofHolland]

Many, many rich settlements and only one-two wars

[BeingOwned:)SPQR]

Exactly, wait... you forgot 100's of hours and turns put into creating those armies... then disbanding the one which took most casualties...

[Massive_attack]

SPQR, that battle looked delicious. Bravo sir ! +rep !

[astounding]

NO GENERALS!!!???!!! In a battle of this magnitude lol, wtf were you thinking! hehe. Just playing, good screen shots.

[BeingOwned:)SPQR]

Being Norway, you'll lose almost all your generals in battles, plus outnumbering your opponent will decrease their morale.

[Massive_attack]

All my generals are either fat and bored in a city trying to grow it or are holding key locations. I sent my assault force into belgium expecting defeat, thus i wanted to take some of the sting out of the loss by not having anybody significant present.

[Kawee]

Don't you have any poor generals or FM? I always have one or two of those. They're usually stark barking mad with an adulteress and drinking problems and what now. But they are still 2hp tanks on the battlefield.

[JorisofHolland]

I always remove the adultress thing. In SS it has way to high triggers.
BTW: Alcoholics are triggered by being in a settlement wen a brothel/tavern/higher level is finished.

[Massive_attack]

Oh Otto von tirol is stark raving mad, an idiot, and a military joke.


But hes got max chiv and loyalty.

Thats how it usually goes. I only use most generals for growing settlements. I can afford to lose a few battles, but getting huge city fast is worth it !
Edit: I'm an economic turtle. lol.