War Stories

[Charles V]

I saw this on the TATW thread so started to start it up here, in this thread you just write a desription of a battle or a campain, even something like a tale of one of your best genreals, or a crusade/Jihad.
I dont care about length. HAVE FUN!!

[Teutonic Warlord]

Isn't that what an AAR is for, though?

[Nazgûl Killer]

An AAR is for those who really have the time to invest in it. Threads like these are perfect for people with lack of real writing time, but have had the time for an epic battle. There have been a number of these threads, I just can't seem to find them at the moment.

[Teutonic Warlord]

An AAR is for those who really have the time to invest in it. Threads like these are perfect for people with lack of real writing time, but have had the time for an epic battle. There have been a number of these threads, I just can't seem to find them at the moment.

Ah! I see! Now, as for those threads, I think they are with Waldo, wherever he is. As such, to find the threads, we must ask the all-important question "Where's Waldo?"

[fredtrotter]

Ah! I see! Now, as for those threads, I think they are with Waldo, wherever he is. As such, to find the threads, we must ask the all-important question "Where's Waldo?"

Don't you mean Wally? Or is Waldo the evil guy

[Emperor Tom]

Once upon a time Emperor Tom decided to go to war with England. A big wall was in his way so he shot it down with a cannon and then killed the group of peasants guarding the Castle with his general.....And thats how Emperor Tom took Nottingham with Milan....thee end

[... where did it run?]

Once upon a time Emperor Tom decided to go to war with England. A big wall was in his way so he shot it down with a cannon and then killed the group of peasants guarding the Castle with his general.....And thats how Emperor Tom took Nottingham with Milan....thee end

I'm proly silly finding this hilariuos, but +rep for it xD

[Vighardur]

Well, I done did it! After more than a year reading posts on here, I've finally decided to register and begin posting! I wasn't planning to, but I've been away for a while and came back to find new activity, so, even though this particular game is kinda old, there's still enthusiasm for it!

So, war story...Playing KGCM as the Danes, was 1253 and went to war with the Mongols near Novgorod. I was allied with the Lithuanians, who had been doing a good job dealing with the Mongols, but were getting worn down. SO, after a couple bad defeats, I finally got an army from the Citadels of Stettin and Lund--Xbowmen and Mounted Xbowmen. Also added some Norse Archers from the castle at Turku--they make some pretty awesome heavy inf. archers.

Finally got my anti-Mongol army shipped in; the Mongols had taken Novgorod, so had troops inside, but also some outside guarding the bridge. My 1262 men were joined by 312 Lithuanians as we fought the two Mongol groups of 673 and 931. Victory! Oh, but such a cost! We killed 94% of them, but lost 82% of ours. They lost both their generals, though, so that was a plus. I gained Novgorod, looted it, and give it to the Lithuanians so THEY can deal with the Mongols. Seems the Danes just are not meant to take on the Mongols in the field.

But despite two previous losses, I was able to win the Battle of Supply, as my stacks could sail from Scandinavia, while the Mongols had to march half-way across Russia.

[Sweger]

Well, I done did it! After more than a year reading posts on here, I've finally decided to register and begin posting! I wasn't planning to, but I've been away for a while and came back to find new activity, so, even though this particular game is kinda old, there's still enthusiasm for it!

So, war story...Playing KGCM as the Danes, was 1253 and went to war with the Mongols near Novgorod. I was allied with the Lithuanians, who had been doing a good job dealing with the Mongols, but were getting worn down. SO, after a couple bad defeats, I finally got an army from the Citadels of Stettin and Lund--Xbowmen and Mounted Xbowmen. Also added some Norse Archers from the castle at Turku--they make some pretty awesome heavy inf. archers.

Finally got my anti-Mongol army shipped in; the Mongols had taken Novgorod, so had troops inside, but also some outside guarding the bridge. My 1262 men were joined by 312 Lithuanians as we fought the two Mongol groups of 673 and 931. Victory! Oh, but such a cost! We killed 94% of them, but lost 82% of ours. They lost both their generals, though, so that was a plus. I gained Novgorod, looted it, and give it to the Lithuanians so THEY can deal with the Mongols. Seems the Danes just are not meant to take on the Mongols in the field.

But despite two previous losses, I was able to win the Battle of Supply, as my stacks could sail from Scandinavia, while the Mongols had to march half-way across Russia.

Well, welcome to the forum then! And nice story, I have had a couple of those myself (most sieges though and all against Mongols)

[Silverheart]

In my recent Venetian campaign, the Mongols last invasion wave besieged Antioch with three of their four Horde armies, and when the attack came, the battle was INTENSE!
First of all, the attacking army had artillery, so they just stood there and smashed up three holes in my walls from a nice distance.
Secondly, after having smashed up the holes in my wall, the attacking army waited for the other two armies to get there before they charged in, so I was effectively forced to defend the gaps against all three at the same time.
As I said, it was intense, a pure bloodbath on both sides - my Spear militia cut their horsemen to pieces, their numbers wore down my men to the point were they couldn´t even fight anymore. Eventually they pushed into the city and surrounded my troops, causing the occasional rout, but most of my soldiers fought to the death.
And at last it ended at the city plaza, where around a dozen Venetian Heavy Infantry with about twice as many Spear militia made a last stand against the overwhelming numbers.
Good thing is, it all worked out so fine in the end.
Even though the Mongols took Antioch and destroyed the army of veterans that had held out against their previous Horde armies stationed there (they had even been reinforced with some professional Heavy Infantry and Dismounted Knights), they lost about 3/4 of the total strength of all those three armies (which means they lost around twice or thrice as many as they killed) AND every single one of their 3 generals were killed during the fighting!
Also, my Doge had an army of crusade veterans in the Antioch region, and proceeded to attack the Mongols the very next turn and destroying their heavily weakened Horde in three battles in a row. The Mongols hadn´t even time to repair the holes in the walls they themselves had blown up, so I reclaimed Antioch that same turn.

Now, after these long and costly battles - and approximately two plunderings - Antioch has almost no building standing anymore, but I think it was worth it in the end (since two of the plunderings were done by my reclamation forces... )

[Vighardur]

Another tremendous battle I had was from the early period in a Crusade (Kingdoms) game, playing as the Byzantines. Things had been going well, kicking the Turks around, when I started getting the messages about the Venetians have broken away from the Crusade...or there was a Crusade that was cancelled but the Venetians are on the way anyway to plunder all they can...

Happily my Turkish front was pretty well secure and I had plenty of money, so got a couple stacks transported to Constantinople to reinforce the full stack that was in the city. Also put a boat on the crossing to keep the Venetians bottled up. Anyway, ended up being about 2 stacks apiece in two tremendous battles! I usually favor English/Danish style heavy infantry forces, but was learning to love horse archers, and foot archer-heavy forces with swords/spears there as nothing more than a line of protection for my archers. I would send my HAs out early on a wide flanking move to start shooting them in the back as they marched close to engage. Then, when they were in regular archer range, open up with flaming arrows! I would kill at least a third of them before they even reached my melee lines! But once they did reach my lines, the fighting was tough and required several charges from my melee horse to finally break their morale.

I forget the numbers, but they were huge and easily some of the biggest battles I had ever fought (had fought the Mongol invasion as Egypt once, with similar numbers...long ago).

[Willowran]

heres my own venice vs mongol story...

They invaded. i didn't feel like following so i kept them penned up in a province with huge armies blocking bridges. i kept heading them off. they didn't seem to want to fight. but it also seemed like i missed one...

They besieged a huge city (cannot remember which), and their rocket launchers demolished the entire thing. the wall was completely destroyed along two sides, towers included. i retreated to the town center where i kept italian spear militia blocking the streets supported by venetian archers and heavy infantry. they ran, they died, i bled... i won in the end, but with the similar 90% fatality rate of their troops vs the 60-ish percent of my own. needless to say i lost when they besieged me next.

[fredtrotter]

All these war stories seem to be about the mongol.

[mesor]

And they seem to follow a theme of Mongol's being very powerful enemies which is weird to me.
Ive spanked Mongols in every single battle in 1 case holding a large castle against 4 Mongol horde's with 3/4 of a stack of Scots that were only there because they completed a crusade.
Was funny in the end though i could of killed them in bridge battle but i decided to be nice and let them die in a city insted so i sat in the center let them come in then they ran headlong down 3 entrances to the plaza met solid walls of royal pike's down each one backed up by a couple units of highland archers with William Wallace himself leading them ( first time i noticed him in this campaign ) all of my men were silver weapon and armor with all of them being 1 gold chevron or above since they were my main assault force before i had issues with the pope so went on a crusade to smooth things over ( while 3 stacks were marching to Rome to kick the pope's pointy hat wearing head in for daring to threaten the Scots empire ).
Which 5 turns later i did then threatened 4 countries into backing me so i became the pope myself and promptly excommunicated every nation that failed to vote for me or had annoyed me in some way plus the French just because well there French and thats reason enough for me to kill them.
Story ends with the west in the midst of a huge civil war with me sitting around laughing at them and killing them off 1 by 1 as they all kill there men fighting each other and i hold every land route into the west with full stacks of elite pike's backed by highland archers so that none of the desert folk can get involved until im the only living faction in the west .

Who dosnt love a good civil war .

[wolfbane751]

And they seem to follow a theme of Mongol's being very powerful enemies which is weird to me.
Ive spanked Mongols in every single battle in 1 case holding a large castle against 4 Mongol horde's with 3/4 of a stack of Scots that were only there because they completed a crusade.
Was funny in the end though i could of killed them in bridge battle but i decided to be nice and let them die in a city insted so i sat in the center let them come in then they ran headlong down 3 entrances to the plaza met solid walls of royal pike's down each one backed up by a couple units of highland archers with William Wallace himself leading them ( first time i noticed him in this campaign ) all of my men were silver weapon and armor with all of them being 1 gold chevron or above since they were my main assault force before i had issues with the pope so went on a crusade to smooth things over ( while 3 stacks were marching to Rome to kick the pope's pointy hat wearing head in for daring to threaten the Scots empire ).
Which 5 turns later i did then threatened 4 countries into backing me so i became the pope myself and promptly excommunicated every nation that failed to vote for me or had annoyed me in some way plus the French just because well there French and thats reason enough for me to kill them.
Story ends with the west in the midst of a huge civil war with me sitting around laughing at them and killing them off 1 by 1 as they all kill there men fighting each other and i hold every land route into the west with full stacks of elite pike's backed by highland archers so that none of the desert folk can get involved until im the only living faction in the west .

Who dosnt love a good civil war .

iv had something similar i worked on one campaign for awhile as france and i had every country dead except for like 3 in the eastern europe so i had poland and hungary and holy roman empire cornered and they were all allied against me but i still had an iron grip of scots gaurd and gendarmes and dismounted chivalric knights around them so they could never break free and take one of my castles

[Silverheart]

The Mongols are capable enemies.
Only one of their Horde armies is manageable, but when they arrive in force they can overwhelm you with numbers.
They are fairly easy to defend against, especially in a city or castle, but even there they can overwhelm your defenders if they get inside.
I rarely fight them in field battles, since I always end up suffering enourmous casualty rates.

I remember one battle where I had an army defending a river crossing against a Mongol army.
First, I was lucky enough that the Mongols charged all their men across the shallow part instead of - like me - sending men around to the other shallows further down and up the stream.
My infantry and archers held their gorund in the middle of the crossing while horse archers and some other cavalry used the other shallow to ride around and attack them from the rear.
The Mongols reacted by sending out their own cavalry, causing my ambushers to be destroyed after a long time of skirmishing back and forth, while my men slowly gained upper hand at the main battle.
Eventually they retreated up to higher ground with the last men they had, but I had too little troops left myself to finish them off. So instead, it became a long-lasting skirmish between my remaining 50 archers against their remaining 200 archers. Fortunately, they were mostly out of arrows, and I kep my general (he was the only survivor of his unit) walking back and forth behind my men to keep them from becoming demoralized.
After some 20 minutes of this, I just placed him in the middle and figured that should be enough.
And what happens? He dies in the first volley the mongols sent off right after that. My men gave up and routed and I lost the battle.

Although a loss, I think it was a memorable battle, but can´t help but wonder what would happen if my general hadn´t died...

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

The Mongols are capable enemies.
Only one of their Horde armies is manageable, but when they arrive in force they can overwhelm you with numbers.
They are fairly easy to defend against, especially in a city or castle, but even there they can overwhelm your defenders if they get inside.
I rarely fight them in field battles, since I always end up suffering enormous casualty rates.

I have only fought the Mongols in Crusades. Not once did they attack a settlement and only once they tried to attack through a ford. Whenever they came close to a bridge, they attacked on the campaign map, then in the actual battle they sat on the opposite bank waiting with two or three of their stacks for my army to cross the bridge and attack them...

So. you have no option but to fight them in the open. To do that you need an economy that can sustain a vast army and to have the resources and the army in place quickly when they arrive. I don't know how you got them to attack settlements, indeed well-garrisoned settlements. Maybe only in vanilla?

[Silverheart]

I have only fought the Mongols in Crusades. Not once did they attack a settlement and only once they tried to attack through a ford. Whenever they came close to a bridge, they attacked on the campaign map, then in the actual battle they sat on the opposite bank waiting with two or three of their stacks for my army to cross the bridge and attack them...

So. you have no option but to fight them in the open. To do that you need an economy that can sustain a vast army and to have the resources and the army in place quickly when they arrive. I don't know how you got them to attack settlements, indeed well-garrisoned settlements. Maybe only in vanilla?

Well, the Mongols act differently in the Crusades campaign than in vanilla, that is correct.

In vanilla, the Mongols almost always goes for Kiev or Antioch - and will definitely go for any neighbouring regions if the take it. Also, they are likely to besiege and plunder their way to their target by attacking settlements that are in their way.
So in vanilla, you can just build up the defences of Antioch and do your best.
I also beef up the garrisons in neighbouring or "threatened" settlements - even if they are not attacked, you can later on use the amassed troops there to assemble a horde of your own and take them on after they have been weakened by many costly sieges. That´s what I usually do.

[helpwithSS3mod!!]

It was my tenth time playing M2TW and is by far the most epic campaign I have ever mustered.

It started with the Holy Roman Empire. Bad economy, spread out and unequal army, overstretched and vulnerable territories. I mustered my army at Bologna and recruited mercenaries to take over Florence. I then took out all units except the weakest unit from each of my city garrisons and set them to siege Hamburg, Metz, and Prague. Turn 4 came and I had all of these settlements under my control, my economy has eased up with a smaller expense.

Then I took my large garrison at Hamburg, recruited a cog and did nothing, then waited for the next turn so the full banner Danish army near my border would go away. I then landed my troops at Arhus and took it over, defeating Denmark by killing just one spear militia unit. My economy now has surplus. I spent the first turn with surplus on infrastructure then the second turn on mustering a larger army over in France.

Then I repeated this process for 70 more turns. By turn 80, I had conquered every single nation in the world except for England, only due to the fact that I was busy scrolling through all my settlements and forgot about my military ventures. Every city from Lisbon to Moscow was mine. My economy was bolstering. 30k per turn. (Although I've been able to get much more recently with much less provinces) At turn 80-100 something, the Mongols appeared. I almost my pants, as I had no actual battlefield experience whatsoever, having done all my battles with auto-fight or whatever. I had the economy to perhaps build maybe 10 full banner armies, but was too cowardly to face the challenge, so I simply quit the game, deleted my save games, and I never had such a successful campaign with another faction ever again.

THE END. Moral of the story? Mongols can go **** themselves.

[Bigbang]

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