Your worst defeats/Failed Invasions

[The Mouth]

Exactly what the title says what are your worst defeats, failed campaigns or failed invasions in stainless steel?

Mine personally was as England when right after dealing with Scotland (They wisely surrendered and became my vassals ) I had two ideas in mind sail for Iberia or... Norway. I decided to sail for Norway first with two full stacks led by two generals, it was supposed to be simple; Capture Bergen and Eikundarsund and finally steam roll down to Oslo. Well turns out I severely underestimated Norway, both my generals winded up dead and my armies just barely holding out against the enemy in Bergen. I eventually managed to kill the Norwegian king and capture Eikundarsund before getting a peace treaty with them so it wasn't a total failure and anyways my vengeance is coming .

On the other hand my Iberian campaign went quite well I made portugal my vassal and the Moors are all but destroyed. Gotta say this is the most fun campaign I've had in awhile.

[DC53]

Mein Gott, I have an epic tale. Okay I was playing as the Eastern Roman Empire, and I had declared war on the Seljuks pretty early. I realized(it was my first time playing) that good units take d*mn long to recruit, so I decided to use the nice units that started out in the capital, the Scholarii and Siphonatores. Now, I had two siege towers and four ladders on Iconium, and I expected to steamroll the Turks. As I had heard about Greek fire being used in sieges, I stuck them in the siege tower. First fail is right around the corner. I told my Siphons to fire from inside the tower(as in, the ramp is down, but they are still inside) at the Turks defending the walls. They torch the siege tower, it collapses, and I lose all of them. The second fail was when my Co-Emperor impaled himself on stakes planted by my archers after the unit they were chasing was destroyed. They nonchalantly walked back, and I lost the whole Bodyguard unit.

[The Mouth]

Mein Gott, I have an epic tale. Okay I was playing as the Eastern Roman Empire, and I had declared war on the Seljuks pretty early. I realized(it was my first time playing) that good units take d*mn long to recruit, so I decided to use the nice units that started out in the capital, the Scholarii and Siphonatores. Now, I had two siege towers and four ladders on Iconium, and I expected to steamroll the Turks. As I had heard about Greek fire being used in sieges, I stuck them in the siege tower. First fail is right around the corner. I told my Siphons to fire from inside the tower(as in, the ramp is down, but they are still inside) at the Turks defending the walls. They torch the siege tower, it collapses, and I lose all of them. The second fail was when my Co-Emperor impaled himself on stakes planted by my archers after the unit they were chasing was destroyed. They nonchalantly walked back, and I lost the whole Bodyguard unit.

They do say when you play with fire you get burned

[beckyolt]

It's happening right now... on my Genoese campaign. I decided to expand to North Africa. I took the castle of Tunis easly with an excellent German general married to one of my princesses.

After some time I capture the city west of Tunis, don't remember the name.

But an Assassin kills my General. One turn later my Doge dies. The new Doge is leprous - aka huge movement points/authority decrease , but he's all I have to send to fight the Moors. Actually, my whole family is plagued with leprous members, it's a terrible problem I'm facing.

At first I send him to the city west of Tunis, but huge religious unrest begins to surface and in a riot hundreds of my soldiers are killed and the populace is still angry.

It kinda makes me wish there was a Massacre feature in SS. You would massacre hundreds of citizens and consequently the public order would increase, but the population would decrease .

I decide to abandon the city before more of my men die and flee with my dimished army to Tunis. Meanwhile, the Moors retake the city - I didn't leave any men on it after I abandoned it - and a powerful army is beginning to assemble right now on that region.

TO MAKE THINGS WORSE, the Novgorodians , whom I peacefully traded with for many years, decide to attack my empire on Crimea. They put Caffa under siege, but I bring army from the castle in the other side of the gulf and break their siege by attacking them on the rear. A terrible battle takes place and I lose hundreds of men, but they lose thousands and go back to their lands bleeding, while I send an army to chase them - I'm doing it right now.

It indirectly affects my situation in North Africa, since now I have to spend money on Crimea.


So I have a tense war in Crimea and a weakened army at Tunis with a leprous Doge while a huge Moorish army assembles in the deserts to the west. I've already begun to send reinfoircements to Tunis but don't know if they'll be enough.

[DC53]

I auto resolved a battle where I had 2:1 odds. I suffered a crushing defeat.

[TheDarkKnight]

Well, it wasn't mine but Spain attempted to invade Britain and I discovered that it had it's king as well as a nice, full stack full of high level units. Since I could tell they were coming to invade (neutral at the time) I decided I might as well start the war on my terms and sunk the entire army plus their king.

[Judeman266]

@DC53
Lol! Hilarious fails but they probably could have been avoided. Fire + siege towers do not work together.

@Gen. Chris
The AI routinely fails at naval invasions because a player can spot it coming. That's not to say that I haven't been surprised before.

My failed invasion was when I invaded France from Iberia. I didn't haqve a very good spy network but I knew their armies were fighting the HRE. I was able to take Toulouse, Bordeaux and Clermont. The next turn France and HRE declared a ceasefire. Before I could regroup, I had all of France's military coming down on me. I lost Clermont and Toulouse, but I managed to sell Bordeaux back to them and beat a quick retreat.

My worst defeat was on a crusade with my King and a general to Cairo. I had taken Alexandria as a base, and was making my way down to Cairo. I got boxed on the bridge and my reserve army was too far away to arrive in time. 2 full stacks surrounded me and not one man survived.

[Encarmine]

Im playing as the Byzantians (who else!)

I have kept very strong allies with Venice and HRH through marridges so my northen borders are tight.

Rebuilding the Roman Empire down in Egypt.

Sent my Emperor along with a massive standing army from Constantinople around turn 55 to Jerusalem to rescue the Crusader States from destruction.

As I did this, the cheeky Bulgarians and others rose up in open rebellion!

Nicosia, Sofia and another province were placed under siege by large stacks with multistarred generals like 'Peter of Bulgaria', my entire military machine was over the sea fighting in Turkey and the holy lands.

Currently I have lost control of 2 of my Northen provinces, and, with my basic thrown together garrison army formed from Athens, Corinth and Arta I managed to save Nicosia from defeat, the rebel army withdrew! but, that rebel army is now stood next to an almost undefended Constantinople!!!

Im worried about the Hungarians also massing on my now fractured European realms!!

Im facing being turned into the crusader states myself, and having to launch a campaign to recapture my homelands :O

[TheDarkKnight]

@Gen. Chris
The AI routinely fails at naval invasions because a player can spot it coming. That's not to say that I haven't been surprised before.

I have been surprised too. It normally occurs when I'm paying attention to something like a Crusade or perhaps elsewhere and all of the sudden I get a "Caernavon Besieged" message and I'm thinking "aw crap..."

[The Khanate]

I land in Rhodes as part of my taking over the Mediterranean. I plonk a nice half stack on the island, and my ships go off to get more stacks. All of a sudden, a Fatimid army ( full stack) turns up and attacks my army! With no ship to flee to, they are crushed! Lesson learnt

[Cathedralsquares]

I tried to charge 4 units of Feudal knights through my pike lines.

I no longer have feudal knights.

[DC53]

I sent my two best English Generals on a crusade to Riga. My spy had opened the gates, so I sent my Generals through. The burning oil killed both of them.

[Ferdiad]

My King got killed while on a boat with his Gold XP stack, just ruined my entire invasion plans.

[TheDarkKnight]

My King got killed while on a boat with his Gold XP stack, just ruined my entire invasion plans.

That's gotta hurt.

[Ferdiad]

That's gotta hurt.

The King was replaceable the Retinue Longbowmen were not.

[TheDarkKnight]

The King was replaceable the Retinue Longbowmen were not.

I would imagine so. Still, losing a King sucks no matter what, unless it was a really sucky king.

[Ferdiad]

I would imagine so. Still, losing a King sucks no matter what, unless it was a really sucky king.

He was mad and the Nobility hated him, so I guess it was a blessing in disguise.

[SonofaBooyah]

Recently had a failed invasion on my Crown of Aragon campaign, 6.4.

I had two full stack armies on boats, heading towards Cagliari and Sicily, in a bid to remake the Crown of Aragon's Mediterranean empire.
My first ship had my Prince in it, and it got attacked by the Moors. And then again by Pirates. And for a final time by another fleet of Pirates. After the third attack, it got sunk, so that's my Montesa knights, Foot men at Arms, and grand bombards gone. Not to mention my heir to the throne.
My second army did luckily reach Cagliari, and attacked. Easy victory, the city was guarded by about three units. So I set up a garrison for the castle, and moved my army back into the boat. Landed on Sicily. And my General gets bribed by the Sicilians...

Add to add insult to Injury, that exact same army then went and retook Cagliari from me. I got soooo mad...

[Judeman266]

@bradavies

Lol, yours is probably the worst.

[TheDarkKnight]

Recently had a failed invasion on my Crown of Aragon campaign, 6.4.

I had two full stack armies on boats, heading towards Cagliari and Sicily, in a bid to remake the Crown of Aragon's Mediterranean empire.
My first ship had my Prince in it, and it got attacked by the Moors. And then again by Pirates. And for a final time by another fleet of Pirates. After the third attack, it got sunk, so that's my Montesa knights, Foot men at Arms, and grand bombards gone. Not to mention my heir to the throne.
My second army did luckily reach Cagliari, and attacked. Easy victory, the city was guarded by about three units. So I set up a garrison for the castle, and moved my army back into the boat. Landed on Sicily. And my General gets bribed by the Sicilians...

Add to add insult to Injury, that exact same army then went and retook Cagliari from me. I got soooo mad...

@bradavies

Lol, yours is probably the worst.

This, for sure.

Brad, that is horrible, and amusing.