I just fought THE greatest battle of my Stainless Steel career
Faction: Denmark
Location: Hamburg (fortress)
Enemy: Teutonic Order
Strength: ~520 (me), 2100+ (TO)
The TO caught me with my pants down.
Some backstory: I handedly obliterated their first incursion at Palanga, and for the next 50 turns, they were regaled to small roving bands that didn't bother me, and seemed to like picking fights with Germany. And then all of a sudden in 1280, four full stacks spawned next to Stetten. Stetten had a general, two catapults, and some old mercenary units. I filled the queue, and popped the general out into the only green square next to the castle and snatched up all the mercenaries in the region. With the turn, I'd have a full garrison. Turn passes, and the armies disappear. I figure that maybe they went south to harass Germany. However, the next turn, they materialize at Hamburg and two of the stacks lay siege. Hamburg was only slightly better prepared; they had all professional units, a mangonel, and even a unit of Norse archers (lolcavalry), but only nine units total, so I figured I could at least cause some damage so a relief force can retake the fortress.
TO initiate battle on the next turn, and I see that, of course, a spy has unlocked the gates. (deleted) I scramble my troops to the inner wall and set them up, and try to position the mangonel to get a few shots off. But the angle wasn't right, and the mangonel crew only served to be the first to fall
I sat behind the walls and waited for the TO's units to come in. Dear god their battle line seemed to stretch for miles. As usual, the cavalry just camped out in front of the walls while waiting for the infantry, so I set my archers and crossbowmen to work picking them off. Fortunately, the ballista towers were more accurate than usual, and soon dead horses began littering the ground. Then the first unit approached the gate. Archers, of all things. They sat right outside, getting doused with oil and firing into the gate at my troops. Conundrum time: sally and attack, or sit and eat arrows? I chose the latter; better to lose a few to arrows than an entire unit to AI stupidity.
Then the first real unit came running up: Sword Bretheren, a heavy infantry unit. And the battle was on in earnest. This first unit was routed, and then they started coming in droves. More Bretheren...then Order Militia, then Burgher Pikemen...and then cavalry of all types. On and on they came; I had to reset my army several times because in the ferocity of their fighting, they actually pushed out of the gate and into hte open. Miraculously, none fell victim to an oil dump. The Danes fought as true Northmen, killing 10 of the enemy for every one that fell. Somewhere in the scrum, the first enemy general died to an arrow or ballista bolt.
By now both our forces were at 40% casualties. I was pretty impressed with how the Danes had fought so far; perhaps I'd be able to take out an entire stack at least. But the TO...they just kept coming; I looked out the gate, and saw a line of pikemen, bretheren, and Christ Knights that seemed to stretch to the outer wall of the fortress. And their archers continued to rain death on us. At this point, I pulled the crossbowmen off the walls and threw them into the melee to bolster the troops, and seeing that the Christ Knights were about to break through my already thin line, I engaged my general. In minutes, a lull took over as the bloodied TO units. And then it started again, with a full force cavalry incursion, and I knew that this was the end.
I now called the Norse archers from the wall, the only unit not fighting now that they were out of arrows, and threw them into the bloodbath. My general blew his horn to encourage the troops, and indeed, they seemed to gain new ferocity, and to my amazement, these depleted units repelled the brunt of three Ritterbruder and Christ Knights, and the other general's bodyguard. Somewhere in this, the second general fell, and a ray of hope began to shine. I had survived far longer than I thought I would...could it be that I might actually have a chance at winning??
A quick glance at the bar of balance told me that this would still be a steep climb to victory, as it still sat in only 15% of my favor...and three more full units of Burghers were approaching the gate, in addition to the archers and others still left.
By this time, four of my units were in the single digits, a couple were gone completely, and the Norse archers were the only unit with more than 20 men standing.
My men had fought hard.
They had fought as warriors.
They fought with the strength and courage of their Viking ancestors, and were smashing their weapons upon their shields, roaring at the remaining TO units to come at them, even though they knew it would mean their deaths.
And somewhere, something awakened. The old gods smiled upon them.
The first pike unit came through the gate too fast for the oil vats to refill and drench them, but come the oil did, and the Burghers were left shocked, having calculated their charge perfectly to avoid such a fate, and were quickly driven back without a loss of one Dane. The second unit came charging up, and engaged the Danes; this one unit completely outnumbered the Danes still alive enough to swing an ax; but within seconds, were driven back. The third pike unit charged in, drenched with oil but determined to end their embarrassment and slaughter the hated Danes. But they too were driven back as the general shed all caution and barreled straight into the pike wall, breaking them in seconds and scattering them. Adn out the gate the general went, charing straight into an onslaught of flaming arrows, losing several of his men before hitting the archers and sundering their units and driving them to rout. Over and over he charged again and again, smashing the last bits of the Teutonic offensive. He then charged out the gate and at the catapults of the first army, while the remaining infantry, which numbered less than 15 men across four units, went for the other catapults on the opposite side of the map. So filled with the fury of Thor and the warrior spirit of Tyr was the general, and his horse channeling the spirit of Sleipnir, that he actually crossed the entire map after traveling half of it to wipe out the first catapults and killed the second army's catapult crews before the infantry were even within retaliation range of the catapults.
And then it was over. An unprepared army, hopelessly outnumbered 4 to 1 with a traitorous gate guard selling them out, and facing a vastly superior force with no time to set up, had just pulled off a triumph worthy of legend and song. The remaining men, who now numbered only ~20, would quickly attain mythic status amongst the Danes, and the mere mention of Hamburg became a threat to Denmark's enemies that would give even their most ruthless generals pause. Only a fool would think he could easily best the Danes in battle now.
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At least, that last paragraph would be a thing if the game didn't crash to desktop on leaving battle
(long, loud string of expletives deleted)
Why is it that the game ALWAYS crashes after you win a legendary victory?
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Originally Posted by Kataphractos
