Epic Battles and Screenshots Thread

**Caesar Augustus** · December 09, 2010, 02:39 PM

Hey all,

So this isn't half as academic as some of the other threads going on at the moment - especially in the 4.0 suggestions thread, however I just won a fantastic victory defending as Rome against 2 Numidian full stacks in a siege. To that end, I figured it worthy of a screenshot and realised that it's probably the best victory in terms of battle stats I've ever won. It's a massive picture so I've put it in spoiler tags so the page doesn't take ages to load.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

So there you have it. Almost 700 Romans defending agaist over 3,000 Numidians. Almost a victory worthy of Leonida himself :sparta:

584 Roman survivors and 184 Numidian survivors

You may give me some rep if you wish

So, who else has won an epic victory recently, and has supporting screenshots?

Rep and cookies will be awarded to those who participate

Dave

**Carados** · December 10, 2010, 05:50 AM

This does make me want to take away tower defence altogether

**Caesar Augustus** · December 10, 2010, 09:03 AM

I gave the enemy the walls as soon as they could get up there! I made no attempt to hold the walls, I just re-took the gate towards the end.

I'll see if I can put together a diagram or something later on to show how I did it. I didn't make any exploits of the AI that I know of.

**Apex** · December 14, 2010, 03:48 PM

Hi, 700 vs 3000 ?

Hmm, that had to be nice and long battle. Have you got som pics from it?

Here are some pics from my last Heroic battle. This was my longest battle ever. I took well over an hour.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Caesar Augustus** · December 14, 2010, 05:52 PM

I decided not to do a diagram, mainly because I'm too tired and will probably end up forgetting about it anyways... Instead I'll do my best to provide a verbal descritpion in a bit. To add context to the battle, the only reason I was fighting the Numidians was because they were completely kicking Carthage's ass in Africa and I want to have a Punic War at some point. So I recruited some legions (the normal Roman lot: velites, hastati, principes, triarii, and from the Italian allies: italian skirmishers, Marsi swordsmen, Samnite heavy infantry, Marsi heavy spearmen and italic cavalry), and broke my normal roleplay and sent them under my youngest military tribunes to be a thorn in the side of the Numidian king, and then gift back any cities I conquer to Carthage.

So this particular stack of mine had conquered the city of Carthage itself. My attempt at giving it back as a gift to Carthage failed. Apparently they couldn't match my generosity. I don't know how to force diplomacy so I decided to keep ahold of the city for now and got it developed enough to start recruiting a garrison (while simultaneously fending off numerous smaller sieges). I was then able to recruit some libyan spearmen (by the way I think these should probably be faction troops for Carthage rather than AOR) and that turn Carthage fell under heavy siege. The two enemy forces camped at opposite sides of the city. Alas, I didn't take more screenshots. There were some really good opportunities too!

Right off the bat I knew that the 2,000 strong stack would be the bigger threat. Not just by numbers alone, but also that stack produced considerably more siege equipment: 4 siege towers, 2 rams and 2 sapping points. The 1,000 strong force produced 1 siege tower, 1 set of ladders and a ram. At least, that was the equipment that was on that side of the walls, I don't know if AI reinforcement armies actually build any siege equipment?

In any case, I only had a enough line infantry to hold off the towers and the ladders, with only the skirmishers and cavalry to hold off the eventual wall breach caused by the sapping point. Possibly acceptable if the breach assault force was light infantry, but the enemy forces were both about 90% desert spearmen. So that would have failed miserably. Instead I made absolutely no attempt to hold those walls. My units would have been surrounded, cut off, and unable to make it back to the central plaza in the event that the enemy broke through.

Instead I broke up my army into 4 groups. Two groups were my line infantry. One of these was my legion, and the other was my italian allies plus the one unit of libyan spearmen I had managed to recruit so far. Another group was my skirmishers. It would be these guys job to lure the enemy onto the two points I had chosen to defend with my line troops. This was essential otherwise I would have had a very real chance of being flanked and the fight finishing very quickly. The fourth group was my general, and the unit of italian cavalry I had. They were to get around behind the forces assailing my line infantry and attempt to break them. I had very little hope of winning this battle, fortunately luck was on my side.

The Numidians advanced rapidly, eager to sieze the undefended walls and crush the tiny Roman force. In their advance, the Numidians every battering ram and also lost all bar 3 of their siege towers to the flaming arrows launched by the city walls. One tower was at the Southern wall, and two were left at the Northern wall. So my foe was pretty much completely dependendent on the sapping points they had prepared. The towers continued their advance, as the sappers were undimining the walls. The walls breached just before the towers reached them, and about 600 men from the smaller force passed around the edge of the city running to join the larger force already charging at the gap. This group undoubtedly sufferd losses from the towers, but I didn't have chance to check. The siege towers then reached the walls, and both the Northern and Southern gates to the city were taken. The remaining enemy forces then advanced into the city.

The Roman legion was positioned to take the brunt of the enemy forces, however I hadn't planned to them to be holding off about 3/4 of the total Numidian forces. The hastati and principes were set to fire at will; I wanted to kill as many enemies as possible from a distance, increasing how long they'd be able to last in melee. I also set them into defensive stance, so their stamina would last longer and so that gaps wouldn't appear in my line. That would be disastrous given the size of the enemy host. Given that most of the enemy were going to be attacking this small group of my men, I also rushed the italian skirmishers to assist the velites as "bait". After successfully ensuring that the enemy army attacked the legion head on (and using up their javelins attacking the enemy in the process), I formed the skirmishers up and got them to join the melee against the desert spearmen as well, to prop up my battle line and reduce casualties amongst the heavy hitters.

My allied force (ie everything that wasn't cavalry, skirmishers or legionary) also joined battle with the enemy successfully. They were formed up quite close to the gate (just out of arrowshot), and held the enemy there. I found they had more difficulty than the Roman legion did, depite the fact that the allies were only taking on about 400 men, so numbers were pretty much equal. I think that shows the disparity between the quality of the troops. Eventually though, the allies started gaining the upper hand and the enemy forces assualting them dispersed. However, the allies were too exhausted to attempt a pursuit, and I left them there to recover, before sending them back towards the plaza.

Meanwhile, the forces attacking the legion were flagging. Their initial confidence was being ground down by the sheer staying power of the legion, and the enemy were rapidly tiring Even the presence of their general wasn't doing them any favours. I began moving my cavalry group to get them into a position to hit the enemy in the rear. Finally, they were in position, and they charged. Instantly, the entire force, of almost 2600 men routed. You can see the result of the ensuing slaughter in the picture attached to my OP. Just about the banner telling me about the heroic victory. Talk about being knee deep in the dead!

As I was flanking the bulk of the enemy, my allied troops had been dispersed throughout the city to hunt down and destroy the few enemy units that were going through the city streets trying to reach the plaza. Eventually, and with some assistance from the rest of my army, these last stragglers were killed too. End result: A heroic victory for me, and a nice shiny icon on the campaign map so it will be remembered for posterity

**Carados** · December 14, 2010, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by CA

The Numidians advanced rapidly, eager to sieze the undefended walls and crush the tiny Roman force. In their advance, the Numidians every battering ram and also lost all bar 3 of their siege towers to the flaming arrows launched by the city walls. One tower was at the Southern wall, and two were left at the Northern wall. So my foe was pretty much completely dependendent on the sapping points they had prepared. The towers continued their advance, as the sappers were undimining the walls. The walls breached just before the towers reached them, and about 600 men from the smaller force passed around the edge of the city running to join the larger force already charging at the gap. This group undoubtedly sufferd losses from the towers, but I didn't have chance to check. The siege towers then reached the walls, and both the Northern and Southern gates to the city were taken. The remaining enemy forces then advanced into the city

Originally Posted by me

This does make me want to take away tower defence altogether

**Caesar Augustus** · December 14, 2010, 06:19 PM

Indeed. It could definitely do with being taken down a notch. The problem is that the player is smart enough to avoid unnecessary casualties, so this will make sieges even easier for the player so we'd need to introduce something to keep it challenging, ie some garrison scripts or something for major cities?

**Needs New Name** · December 16, 2010, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by Caesar Augustus

Indeed. It could definitely do with being taken down a notch. The problem is that the player is smart enough to avoid unnecessary casualties, so this will make sieges even easier for the player so we'd need to introduce something to keep it challenging, ie some garrison scripts or something for major cities?

Yes, the player is smart enough to avoid them, but not the AI.

No towers makes defending much harder for you, although attacking is a bit easier. It's how i play anyway. To give the AI more of a chance in sieges, i wait a few turns in their region, not laying siege, to let them build up some more troops. I too thought about garrison scripts, but i guess they didnt go over too well hehe