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Thread: Total War's Greatest Battles!

  1. #1
    Pyromaster496's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Hello everyone, I decided to make this thread for you to list your greatest victories and/or defeats you have partaken in in any total war game (Mainly Medieval II) This thread is for you to post the greatest battles that you have fought and either succeeded in or lost. Any battles that took place in any mods such as, Diadochi Total war, Stainless Steel and other modded battles like that are accepted too.

    Greatest Battles Example:
    Which total war game (The mod you played on, OPTIONAL) (ie. Rome: Total War, Medieval II: Total war, etc.)

    Name of the battle(you name the battle)

    Your faction and enemy's faction

    Your Commander and Enemy's commander (If you don't know just put N/A)

    Number of soldiers in your army and enemy's (If you don't know just guess how many)

    Greatest tactics used against enemy. (you name the tactic)

    Name of war you are waging with enemy (you name the war)

    Outcome of battle

    that is how you will make your greatest battle chart for the battle you thought was the best victory or worse defeat.

    Enjoy,
    Pyromaster496

  2. #2
    Pyromaster496's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    I'll start off with one

    Medieval II: Total War, Expanded Americas 3.3 Mod

    Battle of the Sardinian Hills

    My Faction: Kingdom of France. Enemy: Moors

    My Commander: N/A. Their Commander: N/A

    Number of Frenchmen: About 3000-5500. Number of Moors: About 2300-4800

    Greatest tactics used against enemy: Cavalry Flanks and Feigned Retreats

    Name of the War: War of Moorish Expulsion

    Outcome of battle: A Victory for the French and an uncontested march to the Moorish Fortress of Cagliari.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Medieval II: Total War Vanilla

    Battle of Oslo, c.1235

    My Faction: The Kingdom of Denmark, Enemy: Kingdom of Scotland

    My Commander: Captain Toke, Scotland: King Edward, Crown Prince

    My Army: 4 Crossbows, 1 Ombudshauer, 3 Norse Axmen, 1 Norse Swordsmen, 1 Mounted Crossbows
    Scotland: 1 Kings Bodyguard, 1 General's Bodyguard, 2 Dismounted Feudal Knights, 4 Highland Nobles, 2 Knights Templar, 1 Border Horse and 3 Ballistas

    Tactics: Harassing with mounted crossbows in order to draw Scottish forces towards the castle walls where the crossbows and Ballista Towers could effect a deadly toll

    Name of War: War of Scottish Succession

    Outcome of Battle: Over 3 turns I was able to slowly whittle away their forces using the tactics above until their army was down to 1/3 it's original size. On the 4th turn I sallied out my entire force and mopped up the survivors and captured the king. The way was now open to taking over Scotland and eliminating the Scottish Kingdom

  4. #4

    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Pictures would be better.

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

  5. #5
    UndrState's Avatar Centenarius
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Well, what if your greatest battle was several years ago? Besides, we want to hear about the details of the battle, and what made it great.

  6. #6
    Makrell's Avatar The first of all fish
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Im gonna start with RTW and the best tactic for Germania.
    Spear warband in wooden wall cities(which is all) just place them at the entrance, and the enemy will never ever pierce it. They will attack at once and shout simultaniously, making me win. This happpende loads of times and i always won.

    M2TW
    TATW
    My army was a big Ered Luin army with good infatry. Fighting againist OOTM in Moria. I swarmed through the gates and attacked head on. But then the Balrog came, i killed ALL the other soldiers in the enemy army, and 1 or 2 Balrogs, but he would never die. i Lost the fight, and got pissed at Morgoth.

    Result: Close defeat

  7. #7

    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    M2TW
    TATW: DaC
    OotMM (me) vs Khazad-Dum
    High-chieftain Lunbug Vs Balin
    Location: east side of moria
    My army:
    1 goblin bodyguard
    1 goblin heavy archer
    5 goblin halberds
    2 goblin heavy infantry
    4 warg riders
    2 ballistae
    3 snaga skirmisher
    2 black uruks
    Enemy:
    Fullstack of dwarves with 2 catapults

    My strategy: move my wargs to the right flank because there was a slight slope.
    Hold the line with my halberds with my skirmishers throwing their javelins
    The rest of my infantry tried to surround the enemy (they did it good but not perfect)
    My wargs tried to take out the catapults first but they took too long. I needed them to do hammer strikes against the dwarves and they did so.
    After 10-ish charges to the face balin had enough and died.
    The rest of the dwarves began to rout (only the catapults were left)
    Dwarven catapult fired one last boulder and killed my general
    Result: faction of Khazad-dum dead half my army dead my best general dead.

  8. #8
    Makrell's Avatar The first of all fish
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Quote Originally Posted by Discord1996 View Post
    M2TW
    TATW: DaC
    OotMM (me) vs Khazad-Dum
    High-chieftain Lunbug Vs Balin
    Location: east side of moria
    My army:
    1 goblin bodyguard
    1 goblin heavy archer
    5 goblin halberds
    2 goblin heavy infantry
    4 warg riders
    2 ballistae
    3 snaga skirmisher
    2 black uruks
    Enemy:
    Fullstack of dwarves with 2 catapults

    My strategy: move my wargs to the right flank because there was a slight slope.
    Hold the line with my halberds with my skirmishers throwing their javelins
    The rest of my infantry tried to surround the enemy (they did it good but not perfect)
    My wargs tried to take out the catapults first but they took too long. I needed them to do hammer strikes against the dwarves and they did so.
    After 10-ish charges to the face balin had enough and died.
    The rest of the dwarves began to rout (only the catapults were left)
    Dwarven catapult fired one last boulder and killed my general
    Result: faction of Khazad-dum dead half my army dead my best general dead.
    That sucks Did you atleast get the Balrog?

  9. #9

    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    No he never sieged moria he was just lurking in front of it after 10 turns i just decided to face him outside.

  10. #10
    Pyromaster496's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Medieval II: Total War, Expanded Americas 3.3 Mod

    Battle of the Colombian Plains

    My Faction: Kingdom of Norway. Enemy: Incan Tribes

    My Commander: N/A. Their Commander: N/A

    Norsemen: About 2000-6000. Incans : About 1000-2000

    Greatest tactics used against enemy: Constant barrages of bullets, LOTS and LOTS of bullets!

    Name of the War: The expansion of the Norwegian Empire

    Outcome of battle: An utter failure in attempting to establish a foothold in the New World. Norwegians nope all the way back home taking 5+ Years to make it back to glorious Norwegian occupied France.

  11. #11
    Biarchus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    2000-6000? That's a large variation. I can understand when you have ~500 unknown, maybe 1k but 4k? For me it's sometimes 4-5 diffirent armies

    The idea of the thread is quite nice, only if you'd post really interesting battles, probably consisting of screens like in AAR's. The desription also does the work. I wanted to post one, but it would just be plain and simple. "Hey, I went as France against HRE with 700 units, they had 800 but I charged them with cavalry and got a heroic win, yay!"

    Just some food for thought

  12. #12
    Pyromaster496's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Quote Originally Posted by Nzg View Post
    2000-6000? That's a large variation. I can understand when you have ~500 unknown, maybe 1k but 4k? For me it's sometimes 4-5 diffirent armies

    The idea of the thread is quite nice, only if you'd post really interesting battles, probably consisting of screens like in AAR's. The desription also does the work. I wanted to post one, but it would just be plain and simple. "Hey, I went as France against HRE with 700 units, they had 800 but I charged them with cavalry and got a heroic win, yay!"

    Just some food for thought
    I read this and I remembered that I did have two armies. I keep mistaking that it was one large army though. I understand what you're say though.

  13. #13
    Silverheart's Avatar Domesticus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Medieval II Total War, vanilla

    The Great Eastern War
    Participants
    Republican Alliance: Venice, Denmark, Russia, Poland and Hungary.
    Khanate Union: Mongols and Timurids.
    Miscellaneous: The Holy Roman Empire and the Turks. Russia, Poland, Denmark and Hungary all betrayed the alliance once the Khanate was no longer an immediate threat to them.

    The second Siege of Kiev

    The Republic of Venice
    vs.
    The Horde of Tamerlane (Timurids)

    General Benasuto vs. most of the Timurid generals (all but one wound up participating)

    Venitian army: upwards to 1500 men, give or take a hundred.
    Timurid forces:
    approximately 5500, dispersed over four consecutive battles (1st: 2500, 2nd: 1500, 3rd: 500, 4th: 1000).
    All four battles happened during the same turn, as the Timurids simply kept sending more armies immediately after every failed attempt, meaning that there was no time for repairs or retraining to take place - even the generals´ bodyguard didn´t regenerate it´s casualties, and in the fourth battle there was only Benasuto himself and one of his bodyguards left.

    Special tactics: Catapults and a mortar squad while defending the central Plaza.
    The catapults were used to shoot down the streets and burn/demoralize the timurid forces, while the mortar crew fired at the enemys elephant artillery from behind the safety of a building. Infantry consisting of spear militia and a few dismounted knights pinned the enemy down at the entrance to the Plaza to allow easy targeting to the catapults and crossbowmen. Most enemy generals died either from flaming catapult shots or spears, although one of them fell from a headshot by the mortars.

    Outcome: the venitian forces were worn down to 199 men (most of which were crossbowmen and artillery crewmen - the infantry had less than 50 men left), and the walls had been blown wide open, but the defenders persevered throughout all four attempts.

    Aftermath: after the four-part attempt on Kiev, the Timurids quickly reassembled the remains of their horde and came back to besiege the city again.
    The citys´ garrison bravely held off another two attempts before the last 90 or so men fell to a two-prong assault by the last large army the Timurids had left and a smaller force - however, both Timurid generals died in this battle.
    A special elite army of Venice (one of five that had been assembled and shipped in to participate in the war) reached the city the turn after that, and killed the last remaining Timurid general, thus ending their threat.
    By this time, the Alliance had already fallen to pieces, but Venice consolidated it´s captured regions in the east well and easily held off all aggressions, and the elite armies that remain are now marching out to the new frontlines to teach their former allies what happens when you cross Venice. More such armies are being assembled in Greece to march northward and join their veteran brothers-in-arms.
    Even though the Hordes are gone, the Great Eastern War continues...
    Last edited by Silverheart; March 30, 2014 at 05:03 PM.
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  14. #14
    Biarchus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Greate battle I'd rep if I had some left Any pics?

  15. #15
    Silverheart's Avatar Domesticus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Quote Originally Posted by Nzg View Post
    Greate battle I'd rep if I had some left Any pics?
    Sadly, no pics - I have never learned how to take screenshots (and have never really had any need for it), and even when I do as others instruct me, I never manage to figure it out, and always come up short...
    All of the battles were unbeliveably exciting to watch, though, so the lack of pics really is a shame.
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  16. #16
    Biarchus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Tilman Erhart Prince Thierry

    War of the Roman legacy: The Defence of Dijon

    Holy Roman Empire
    against Kingdom of France

    Tilman Erhart
    (750 men deployed)against Prince Thierry(1250 men deployed, including 7 elite general stacks)

    Description:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    In the year of 1247 Holy Roman Empire's army stationing in Metz commander heard the news of French inviding German-controled benelux. The orders were simple, march into French territory and try to cripple the enemy. Soon young Tilman Erhart encountered a greate opportunity to siege and capture Dijon, one of French trade centers. After some skirmish manouvers Erhart managed to march into city and proclaim it Empire's land. Soon after that Prince Tierry of France assembled his generals and war council members and marched to retake the town. In 1250 after a quick siege he attempted to take the city walls.



    French army surpassed Empire's troops in both quality and quantity. In addition German general was unexperienced and still young. He wanted to take down as many French generals as he could and maybe the prince himself. The French tried a night attack and started to tear down the walls sorrounding Dijon. Soon after that they breached the gate and first French soldiers marched into the city.




    Luckily for Erhart, Empires army was mostly composed of spearmen, who had an advantage over French cavalry in the tight streets of the city. After a bloody melee first French generals started to die crushing their soldiers morale.



    Erhart noticed that some of the French knights managed to get through his lines of spears. He personally attempted to attack prince Thierry but soon his troops aided him and managed to capture the enemy hier.




    Soon afterwards the second force started storming Dijons walls and Erhart had to send some of his troops to delay them. He quickly managed to kill the last of the generals just as the reinforcments arrived.



    Hearing news of their commanders being either dead or captured, French forces started to rout and soon were captured. Empire has lost a lot of troops, Erhart himself almost died but the result was clear, Holy Roman Empire held the walls and won the battle.



    Knowing that the treasury is good Erhart commanded to execute all of the captured soldiers to set an example for any French who would want to attack the Empire again. Some say, that France suffered a crushing defeat in Dijon and soon would face more problems in their eastern regions.


  17. #17
    Silverheart's Avatar Domesticus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    This is actually necroposting, but I hope nobody will mind
    I do believe that this thread is still a good idea, so I wanna make an effort to revive it, and I have a new battle with which to do that.

    Medieval II Total War, vanilla

    The Great Iberian war
    Participants:
    The Turkish Empire: Spearheaded by the Liberation Force (commanded by Tutush the Holy Warrior) and the Battery Army (commanded by Janbulat the Lewd).
    The Norman Alliance: Sicily and England.
    Miscellaneous: Moors, Spain, and Portugal.

    Background: Iberia had always been a peninsula of turmoil. For hundreds of years, muslim and catholic Powers had vied with each other for control.
    Eventually, the portuguese managed to gain the upper hand for the catholics, and pushed out the Moors. Although the Moors eventually halted further portuguese expansion, they never managed to reestablish their foothold in Iberia, leaving the muslim population there to suffer under catholic oppression.
    This turn of developments attracted the attention of the Turkish empire, whose nigh-legendary Liberation Force had up until then fought to liberate muslims everywhere from oppression, and was at the time stationed in Tunis. They were immediately dispatched to liberate the rest of North Africa from Sicilian rule, and then take the offensive into Iberia. Meanwhile, the sultan also dispatched to their aid the Battery Army, a specialized army utilizing a large supply of heavy artillery, which had by then become famous for their lightning conquest of the Byzantine empire. The Battery Army was the only army in Turkey which was allowed to use the dreaded Monster Bombards, and were hence known city-takers - it was said that no walls on Earth could possibly withstand their bombardments.
    By the time of the turkish invasion of Iberia, the peninsula had become evenly divided due to warfare between the catholics - Portugal had conquered Spain, only to immediately crumble before the onslaught of english and sicilian invasions. Now, England controlled the northern two thirds of Iberia, and Sicily the southern third.
    This conflict paved the way for the turkish invasion, and they quickly overran most of the peninsula. The sicilians were cast out entirely, but the english entrenched themselves in the region of Leon, with great fortifications and a large garrison, as well as two field armies to hold the bridge crossing to the south and the mountain pass to the west.
    The turkish sultan commanded both of his prized armies, the Liberation Force and the Battery Army, to attack Leon, and the race was on.
    While Tutush of the Liberation Force managed to brilliantly defeat the english at the Battle of the Mouth of the Mountain, the Battery Army blasted its´ way across the bridge to the south of Leon, and reached the city first. Now, general Janbulat had only to lay siege to the most heavily defended city on the Iberian peninsula...

    The Siege of Leon

    The Turks
    vs.
    England

    General Janbulat
    vs. King Hughes

    Turkish army
    : approximately 1100 men, most of which being artillery and archers.
    English army: around 1200 men, a lot of which being heavy cavalry, with an additional 250 men in a reinforcing army.

    Special Tactics: Extensive artillery usage to blast open walls and detroy towers, then entering the city with infantry holding chokepoints while archers and other missile troops performed most of the actual killing.
    The intrusion into the city was only piecemeal and careful at first, though, because the army had to await the return of the cavalry, which had been sent away at the start of the battle to ride down the reinforcements before they could enter the city. Most of the reinforcements were killed before they reached the wall - only a handful of knights managed to break through to safety.
    After the cavalry returned to the army, they maneuvered their way around the city, occasionally charging into the Plaza, and eventually managed to kill all the enemys´ archers and catapult crewmembers. However, this required a lot of maneuvering troops around, since the enemy did not simply yield the city - there were constant excursions from the Plaza to harass or even try to break through the chokepoints. During this constant small-scale fighting, Janbulat got overrun, and was killed by the enemy general - however, not long thereafter, some Ottoman infantry from the nearest chokepoint managed to avenge him by killing the english king with a rain of arrows. It wasn´t until the enemy had lost well over 80% of their forces that they resigned themselves to simply try and make a last stand in the Plaza.
    Then it was simply a matter of positioning the infantry on the road to the Plaza, and let the archers rain down death on the remaining defenders.

    Outcome: with around 140 casualties, the Turks won a spectacular victory. Thanks to the brilliance of the tactic of using archers and naffatun defended by heavy infantry, they managed to preserve their numbers while simultaneously causing high amounts of casualties.
    The loss of Janbulat was tragic, however, as he was a most promising rising star among the turkish generals, and his men took revenge for him by executing all the prisoners and sacking the city.

    Aftermath: After the battle, the Battery Army had to stay in the city to maintain order until a proper garrison could be set in place. Meanwhile, the Liberation Force moved on to push the frontline all the way to the Pyrenees, along with another turkish invasion army coming up from the recently conquered Valencia. This will mean the liberation of all of Iberia, where the Turks are already busy scrambling garrisons and fortifying settlements to ensure that the peninsula will never be under serious threat again. Although the wars against England, Portugal and Sicily will still rage on beyond the mountains, at least in Iberia the violence will finally have come to an end.
    Last edited by Silverheart; March 12, 2015 at 04:57 PM.
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  18. #18
    Decanus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    Well, necro or not, Silverheart has indeed put this thread under my eyes, so I think I'll share one battle as well.

    Up to now, this is the only Heroic Victory I've gained in my current Byzantine campaign (in case you're interested, I'm writing an AAR about it, link in my sig).

    Game: Medieval II, Mod: Stainless Steel 6.4.

    Part of Basileus Ioannis II's Wars against Venice (first dalmatian campaign, 1131-1132 AD)

    Powers involved: Eastern Roman Empire vs Republic of Venice

    Commanders: Ioannis II the Chivalrous vs Councillor Vitale and Angelo Michele

    Byzantine Forces: 8700 men, mostly being scoutatoi and acritae, backed up by a couple regiments of Bulgarian Archers, a unit of magyar auxiliaries, two regiments of Athanatoi (Ioannis II and his second born son Nikodemos) plus a tagma of Scholarii

    Venetian forces: up to 13000 men, splitted in two armies, with a large number of urban spearmen, crossbowmen, mercenary macemen and up to four units of heavy cavalry (Generals' bodyguards and mailed knights).

    The above numbers are multiplied by ten for roleplay and realism sense. So, in reality it was 870 vs 1300

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Background: recently arisen to the throne after her sister, Anna Komnena's, attempt of usurpation and the following Civil War, in 1131 Ioannis II felt confident enough to lead the Empire's armies against its most threatening enemies, the Venetians, which, during Alexios I's reign and Anna Komnena's usurpation, had given much trouble to the Empire, taking advantage of the Second Crusade to redirect Northern Italy's resources in a failed attempt to overthrow Alexios and carve their own Empire in the Balkans.
    The stronghold of Ragusa, in Dalmatia, is a key target for Ioannis, if the Basileus wishes to expell the Venetians from the Balkanic exchequer and put an end to the war with the Empire. To the north, the allied Kingdom of Hungary is nonetheless interested in expelling the Venetians from Dalmatia and Croatia and gain an outlet to the Adriatic Sea and its worthy trade lines.

    In 1131 AD, Ioannis besieged Ragusa, held by Councillor Vitale and a small, yet experienced garrison. The Council in Venice resolves to send a relieving host under command of Angelo Michele, a young, unexperienced and brave noble. Ioannis II is therefore forced to abandon the siege and prepare his forces for the upcoming battle, which could prove fundamental in assuring the Empire's control over the Western Balkans and the Adriatic, securing its Western borders, which are nonetheless threatened by the Normans of Roger II.

    In an attempt to render vain his enemies' undisputed cavalry and numerical superiority, the Basileus placed his army atop of gentle slope, ordering his Bulgarians mercenaries to plant stakes in front of them in order to keep the enemy knights at bay and redirect their charge toward the byzantine wings, where he had placed his most experienced units of scoutatoi.



    The two venetian commanders, well knowing how suicidal a charge against the stakes would prove for their heroic knights, redirected them, nonetheless, towards the byzantine wings. There, their impetues put the scoutatoi under a severe testing, severely depleting their ranks and pushing them slowly back. Only the Basileus' son, Nikodemos', intervention saved his left wing's collapse.

    In the meanwhile, the italian infantry reached the byzantine footmen atop the hill. A fierce fight developed, a fight in which only the byzantines' better training and armour allowed them to keep at bay the overwhelming enemy numbers. While the infantries clashed and fought bitterly, Ioannis II unleashed his cavalry on the enemy wings, slaughtering the cavalrymen after a brief, yet violent meleč, and exposing their foot comrades' back. As news upon Vitale and Angelo's deaths reached the common soldiers, they bagan slowly whitdrawing, in a manouvre that, under the overhwelming Greek pressure and the thunderous charges of the Scholarii turned into a complete, chaotic and humiliating rout.



    Up to 7000 italians fell that day, with 4000 more falling in Ioannis' hands as captives. The Greek losses, anyway, were severe, too: 3000 man, among which, most notably, lied Ioannis' son, Nikodemos, aged 16. A senseless slaughter, rendered even more futile by the following Norman invasion of Albania, which forced the Basileus to lead his army southward to repel the new threat. Nonetheless, the Empire would strike back...soon, Ragusa's outskirts would be soaked with blood. Again.

  19. #19
    Silverheart's Avatar Domesticus
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    I got another one recently, in my latest scottish campaign

    Medieval II Total War, vanilla

    The Anglo-Scottish War
    Participants:
    Scotland, supported by their french allies.
    England,
    with sporadic, erratic support from Milan.
    Miscellaneous: Spain, Denmark and the Holy Roman Empire.

    Background: Scotland and England, after having lived peacefully side by side for over a century, have at last gone to war with one another.
    The war was started by english aggression against scottish-controlled York, and was probably triggered by Scotlands´ excessive growth due to overseas expansion in the Mediterranean and Levant. However, the war didn´t turn out as expected for the english. Firstly, their aggressions were met with iron defenses and fought off with ease. Secondly, their subsequent excommunication allowed for the scots to push the vatican into declaring a crusade on London itself, thus triggering declarations of war against England from all across the lands of catholicism - and with the english mostly relying on their mainland holdings for revenue and troops, more enemies at those borders was the last thing they needed. Thirdly, after having failed to hold London, and having Nottingham taken by scottish veterans from the conquest of Wales and Ireland, the english soon found themselves pushed out of their own homeland!
    After this, the english became distracted with wars on the mainland, while Scotland went back to focusing on their colonies, and the war reached a low point. However, it heated up again after a ceasefire between Scotland and England saw the city of Bruges come under Scottish ownership as part of the peace agreement. England quickly came to realize the value of Bruges, and soon rekindled the war to try to take it back. The city had only been under scottish management for a short while, and little defenses hade been prepared. The appointed governor, Nectan of the Erskyn clan, left the city to search the countryside for mercenaries willing to join in the defence. While he was out recruiting, the english seized the initiative and besieged the city. Nectan headed back, but being unable to enter the city due to the siege, he resigned himself to wait for the assault, and then storm off to defend his city as best he could.

    The Third Siege of Bruges

    Scotland
    vs.
    England

    Nectan Erskyn
    vs. Unknown English commander (It was a mere captain, probably hoping to make a name for himself)

    Scottish Army:
    Somewhere around 1400, give or take a hundred.
    English Army: Approximately 2000 men, or more.

    Special Tactics: formations of light pikemen with spear-armed militiamen in front, placed at the end of narrow streets, where the pikemen cannot be circumnavigated and will be able to use their weapons to greatest effect. Two such formations were placed on the main street, while remaining units of spearmen were placed aside from the main gate to try to hold diversory streets.
    The reinforcements focused on running to the city as fast as they could, and set up for a last stand at the central Plaza, with crossbowmen and a pair of ribaults being protected by a formation of Flemish pike mercenaries. However, Nectan himself and his bodyguards rushed over to attack the flanks of the enemy. Being the only scottish cavalry available, their chances seemed slim, but thanks to the much lower quality of the english cavalry, they quickly managed to take them out, giving them free reign to charge the flanks over and over again.
    After the english entered the city through the holes blown open by their catapults, the spearmen quickly fell, but the pikemen managed to stop them at the second pike formation.
    With the commander long dead and their morale sapped after having lost hundreds of comrades to the few scottish cavalrymen outside, the english troops simply didn´t have the courage to press on to any potential victory. Upon fleeing the city, the routing Soldiers were quickly rounded up and cut down by Nectan and his men.

    Outcome: Despite suffering heavy losses from the english heavy infantry after the fighting in the streets commenced, the scots won a remarkable victory.
    It was also a victory which was clearly decided by Nectans´ decisiveness - of the more than 2000 English troops, as many as 1100 were cut down by him and his bodyguards!
    Considering that the english, despite that, were still able to press the garrison to the second last line of defence, it says itself that they would most likely have won the day, were it not for Nectans´ interference.

    Aftermath: The english returned soon after the battle to besiege Bruges again, but since it was a weaker army facing a stronger garrison this time around, Nectan had no trouble fending them off again, him and his men once again claiming record numbers of kills while butchering their way all the way through the english army, from one flank to the other.
    After having suffered such huge casualties, the english were now weakened, and a returning scottish crusade army, which had previosuly plundered its´ way through the Levant and conquered Southern Italy for Scotland, was able to sweep past Bruges and take the now almost empty Antwerp as well.
    This leaves England with only the northwestern corner of France still in their hands, while Scotland have now established a strong foothold on the mainland, and finally has the military power to expand it on hand.
    Certainly, the fall of England is only a short time away now...
    Last edited by Silverheart; March 23, 2015 at 05:51 PM.
    Heart of silver, Mind of gold
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  20. #20
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    Default Re: Total War's Greatest Battles!

    I got another one recently, and figured it was good enough to revive this thread
    Medieval II Total War

    The Milano-Sicilian War

    Participants:
    Milano
    Sicily,
    supported by the Venetio-German alliance

    Background: Sicily and Milan started off in a bad way, with Sicily attacking milanese soil while Genoa was in a moment of weakness.
    Over the course of several following centuries, the conflict continued over the course of several wars, where the milanese kept holding their ground, though being unable to counterinvade because of how hard pressed they were on other fronts, particularly in northern Italy by the impressive might of the Venetio-German Alliance.
    However, thanks to a crusade, Milano was able to amass a large force of veterans, which it was able to use after the crusade to not only claim colonies in the Eastern Mediterranean, but also invade Siciliy itself. The sicilian royal family eventually died in Sicily, as the castle of Palermo fell.
    However, a large contingent of the sicilian military refused to give up the fight, and established an independent government in Napoli.
    Backed by a massive force, these rebels seemed certain to be able to maintain their claim of independency against any foe.
    But the duke of Milano had other plans. He assembled his veteran crusaders, augmented them with reinforcements from the newly subjugated knights of Sicily, and set sail to invade southern Italy.
    Napoli is an important and wealthy city, and claiming it could become a deal breaker for the hard pressed milanese.
    But if they should fail, their defeat will make Milan weakened to the point where it would take decades for them to recover...

    The Siege of Napoli

    Milan

    vs.
    The Sicilian "Knight´s army" (rebels)

    Duke Ducello the Mad
    vs. Unknown

    Milanese army:
    1700 men in total, divided across two armies (one containing 1460, the other a meager 240).
    Napoli Defense army: 2100, divided across the garrison and a field army (the former having 500, the latter 1600).

    Special Tactics: Heavy bombardment and control of gates.
    The Milanese initiated the battle by using their artillery to smash open a hole in the walls, then charge in with all their might.
    The spearmen and some of the heavy infantry claimed a foothold at the end of the street inside the hole, while all the remaining heavy infantry and crossbowmen ran along the wall to claim the gate where the enemy reinforcements would be most likely to try to enter. Meanwhile, the cavalry set up outside of the same gate in preparation to hold off the enemy armys´ advance until the foot troops would be in place.
    The plan was to take a small foothold inside the city, hold off the garrison, and then wait for the enemy reinforcements to try to enter the city. Once this happened, the foot troops would be stationed right inside the entrance to creat a killing ground, allowing for a swift and effective disposal. After this, the milanese would press onward into the city to defeat the garrison and claim the Plaza.
    However, due to a combination of the garrison being too aggressive and the reinforcing army choosing to move along the walls and enter via the same breach that the milanese artillery had smashed open, the battle seemed likely to become chaotic. Some swift decision-making allowed for the milanese to call off their advances into the city (leaving that to their own reinforcements) and fall back to breach for the main fight. Once there, the enemy were destroyed as they were cornered by infantry, shot down by archers, and charged on the flanks by cavalry.

    Outcome: With a minuscule 250 casualties, the milanese troops won the day, while the enemy was destroyed to the last man.
    Another force belonging to the same faction that tried to defend Napoli was hunted down by the milanese knights and destroyed soon thereafter.
    All in all, the conquest of Southern Italy only cost Milan the lives of about 300 men.

    Aftermath: Milan has now gained another city of major economic importance, and will make sure to use the extra funds to advance their interests against the venetians and germans in the war that is still raging in northern Italy. Although still hard pressed, Milan has now risen to be the most powerful faction in Italy.
    Heart of silver, Mind of gold
    Fist of iron and Tongue to scold

    Proud to be a Viking!

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