It was a chance capture. I ordered a unit of pikemen to the right flank and since the officers are slower than the rest of the unit for some reason they passed by the main line all by themselves.
There were some Heavy Balestramen left and they took a small but inevitable toll on my tightly packed formations.
For a proper battle I would probably not let these pike/arquebuse rectangles run around on their own. Some Archers or Crossbowmen for supportive fire to suppress enemy archers would be necessary.
That's true!
Yes I would solve it in the same way. So at every turn end do you land the artillery to join your troops?
No I guess, it wouldn't make any sense
Hmm.. it will be a great pleasure to find a way to counter your tactic
In fact I had the most casualties against massed horse archers (not so much against mounted crossbows as their rof is rather low). They don't run into my pikes, keep shooting my arty crews and are hard to hit for my crossbows when in cantabrian circle.
I have now finished the invasion of Tunisia with my HRE campaign and sorted, cut and converted the screenies I made. There are 54 of them and now I am too tired to start posting them, so here are three unrelated screenshots I came across while playing that make for some cool scenes.
Trooping the Colours in Sassari:
These guys make Tennyson's Light Brigade look like cowards:
And finally, the horrors of war. I myself wouldn't want to be a real soldier in the battles I fought virtually.
I'll start with the first episode of the Tunisian Campaign tomorrow. =)
Last edited by Iskar; March 24, 2015 at 05:59 PM.
"Non i titoli illustrano gli uomini, ma gli uomini i titoli." - Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi
"Du musst die Sterne und den Mond enthaupten, und am besten auch den Zar. Die Gestirne werden sich behaupten, aber wahrscheinlich nicht der Zar." - Einstürzende Neubauten, Weil, Weil, Weil
On an eternal crusade for reason, logics, catholicism and chocolate. Mostly chocolate, though.
The Tunisian Campaign Episode 1 - Si vis pacem, para bellum!
The fleet set sail and finally we reached the shores of Tunisia. A total of 5500 pikemen, 3600 crossbowmen, 1400 gunners and arquebusiers, 1600 artillery men with 64 cannons and 625 men cavalry was ready to launch the invasion.
While the main force with three armies, the Archduke and the Pope landed in the north to lay siege to Tunis, two ships under the command of Heinrich the Lazy broke off to assail Quairawan and secure our southern flank, should the Ottomans try to attack us via Al-Kaf.
The Ottomans obviously had rather incompetent reconnaissance, for they were quite unprepared for our assault. The Archduke immediately laid siege to Tunis while Ruprecht von Freiburg led two armies south- and westward to secure the bridges to Annaba and Al-Kaf.
To our surprise the Ottoman leaders decided to completely ignore the northern route and sent all their troops to take the bridge of Al-Kaf. Thus it was unfortunately closed to us and even worse - the strong Ottoman forces there threatened to drive a wedge between the Archduke's and Heinrich the Lazy's armies. The discussions in the commander's tent that night where I served as scribe once again were as heated as the sand beneath our feet. The climate was against us, but it seemed we would not be able to avoid a large scale field battle, for we had to buy the Archduke time to wear down the troops in Tunis that were too numerous to be overwhelmed by a direct assault. In the end it was decided to abandon the northern bridge and move as many troops towards Al-Kaf as possible. All hopes now rested on the military genius of Heinrich the Lazy and the ingenuity of Ruprecht von Freiburg. If they failed the Archduke would be smashed between the still large garrison of Tunis and the advancing Ottoman armies.
Heinrich Scherer - Imperial Scribe and Historian
Tunis, February 6, 1560 AD
PS: The Formatting seems to be a bit unstable. So sorry if the images and text look weirdly arranged on some screens. EDIT: I dabbled a bit with the fieldset command and it might look better now.
Last edited by Iskar; March 25, 2015 at 01:05 PM.
"Non i titoli illustrano gli uomini, ma gli uomini i titoli." - Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi
"Du musst die Sterne und den Mond enthaupten, und am besten auch den Zar. Die Gestirne werden sich behaupten, aber wahrscheinlich nicht der Zar." - Einstürzende Neubauten, Weil, Weil, Weil
On an eternal crusade for reason, logics, catholicism and chocolate. Mostly chocolate, though.
The Tunisian Campaign
Episode 2 - A Clash of Cultures
Heinrich Scherer - Imperial Scribe and Historian
Tunis, February 7, 1560 AD
Last edited by Iskar; March 26, 2015 at 06:18 AM.
Reason: Forgot Heinrich's signature...
"Non i titoli illustrano gli uomini, ma gli uomini i titoli." - Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi
"Du musst die Sterne und den Mond enthaupten, und am besten auch den Zar. Die Gestirne werden sich behaupten, aber wahrscheinlich nicht der Zar." - Einstürzende Neubauten, Weil, Weil, Weil
On an eternal crusade for reason, logics, catholicism and chocolate. Mostly chocolate, though.
The Tunisian Campaign Episode 3 - The Tortoise and the Hare
Heinrich Scherer - Imperial Scribe and Historian
Tunis, February 9, 1560 AD
"Non i titoli illustrano gli uomini, ma gli uomini i titoli." - Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi
"Du musst die Sterne und den Mond enthaupten, und am besten auch den Zar. Die Gestirne werden sich behaupten, aber wahrscheinlich nicht der Zar." - Einstürzende Neubauten, Weil, Weil, Weil
On an eternal crusade for reason, logics, catholicism and chocolate. Mostly chocolate, though.
@mjsanta: My standard full stack army usually fields six units of artillery, six units of pikemen, six units of crossbowmen and 2 units of either cavalry or gunners, or a general and one of the former. Ruprecht's army in that case was a bit smaller, fielding only four units of crossbowmen, five units of pikemen, no cavalry and just one unit of gunners.
The Ottomans fielded basically one third light cavalry, one third javelineers and one third halberdiers, sometimes interspersed with a bit of artillery or corsairs.
@Neadal: I always play on Medium/Medium, but in fact, I was sometimes surprised, too, about the moves the AI was capable of. I guess it is an effect of that AI mod of Germanicus you built in.
Last edited by Iskar; April 08, 2015 at 05:14 AM.
"Non i titoli illustrano gli uomini, ma gli uomini i titoli." - Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi
"Du musst die Sterne und den Mond enthaupten, und am besten auch den Zar. Die Gestirne werden sich behaupten, aber wahrscheinlich nicht der Zar." - Einstürzende Neubauten, Weil, Weil, Weil
On an eternal crusade for reason, logics, catholicism and chocolate. Mostly chocolate, though.