Have you ever had an equivical to the Immortals?

[wethepeople]

Like, an elite army? One that was so powerful, and so strong, it could march across any land? One that you upgraded with armor and swords, exp and all that? One that you thought could /not/ be defeated? I had one so far. The Danish Elite. It consisted of a seven star General, King Knud. Hundreds of Norse archers, a front wall of Sword staff militia, supporting armoured sgts, and a back line of Norse axemen. As well as a lot of Danish mounted Clerics or whatever. The army was incredible, and it single handedly took out 3/4ths of all of Poland, before being too worn down to continue. King Knud died, then I had to destroy the army and replaced it with militia to make more money. But those Elite got more then 2000 kills, and were never defeated save by the test of time.

Have you had one?

[CBCRonin]

I felt that way in MTW about some of my armies. Constructing troops like Swiss pike and longbows made an army feel unique and valuable, because of the difficulty and time it took to replace lost men. In Med2, what you can construct in Scotland is available to you in Egypt (providing you construct the buildings). Most of my armies in Med2 are just a random mix of what I can afford.
When I first started playing, the occasional merc unit (that I can't build) made an army feel somewhat special, but I found myself worrying too much about loosing any of the men in it (can't replace them). So I only hire merc units now for emergencies or siege fodder.

[OmegaRED]

Yes I did and will never do it again here's why...

Army 1: Massive Spanish force with all elite cannon units, elite Chivalric Knights (mounted and unmounted) and some crossbowmen. They wiped out most of Denmark but when I sent them to capture one far off Island my force betrayed me.

Army 2: Landed in South America and slowly build up a force of Conquistadors (mounted and unmounted) led by a maxed out General. Ferried them over to siege the Azteks and they betrayed me after I built the siege equipment.

[Towelie]

Thats my style of playing actually Build one (two or tree later) elite army, then keep repairing it, upgrading armours and weapons, upgrading troops (i.e. if i play england, and using yeoman's in army, as soon as retinue longbowmens shows up, replace 'em, also billmans with heavy ones, FK's with EK's, etc.)..
Problem is, as CBCRonin said, i also worrying too much about loosing them, so it happends sometimes that in the middle of the war i send 'em back on retrain.
Also, AI is usually stupid, making bunch of half stack armies, so great battles with it are rarity, but when happend, its epic
And there is a fear, when king die, till new arive to tako control of it, that they dont go rebel.

BTW, in my curent campaign with england, it looks like: King, 3 units of EK's, 6 units of RL's, 4 AS's, 2 HB's and 4 Levi's (well i need something against cavalry )
French and HRE army's looked kinda better..

[J@mes]

I had an elite army when playing as England: Armoured sergeants, Crusader Knights, Feudal Knights with full plate and from a master sword smiths guild with an 8 star general this elite managed to defend all that where left of my empire in france untill Denmark managed to finally destroy them, this elite army wiped out countless full flag envaders.

The general died in battle (general vs general) like a true hero.

[pat the magnificent]

i had a full army of like 7 units of duke famiglia, 5 units of templars, and a bunch of mercenary horse archers. was lead by a 7 star general with the "Ruler of the Night" trait. crushed almost the entire holy land and anatolia with only occasionally hiring new horse archers.

general (and most of the army) eventually died in a really tough battle against the mongols. he was like 60 some odd years old and the battle was a victory against 2 full stacks of mongols so i just let him be dead rather than loading and refighting the battle.

[FightingSpirit]

Yes, the London garrison in my old England game. It consisted of 8 Retinue Longbowmen, 6 Armoured Swordsmen, 3 Generals, and 3 Knights Hospitaler

[Goatbuster3000]

This English army isn't as elite as some of the ones you guys have posted here, but it works for me. Year = 1210 Roughly 6 Longbowmen(single silver chevron), mix of armored swordsmen and dismounted mailed knights, three trebuchets(new, not yet tested), headed by a powerful general. You can see I'm lacking in the cavalry department, but I'm looking to fix it.

This army led me through three separate campaigns, my Scottish campaign (ending with Scotland becoming my vassal), my Germany campaign (ending HRE's presence in Europe) and the French campaign (soundly defeating the last French army at Leon)

They make me proud, and are soon to lead a combined campaign I shall call the Iberian campaign, in which I hope to remove Portugal and Spain, as well as send the Moors back to Africa.

[romanfool]

ya as English i had an elite army of retinue longbowmen, english dismounted knights and english fueldal dismounted knights, a 7 star general leading like 10 retinue longbowmen with starting out 2=3 bronze cheverons ending mostly gold, the other dismounted guys had about teh same. it was a decent army, and i took down 5 mongol stacks with them in the open field of course. by that time teh majority of my units were dead alogn with my general, so i had to regroup and retrain my soldiers, started with 20 units ended with like 6. i retrained tehm all and sent them out again to rampage 3 more stacks. tehn i was brutally ambushed by 2 stacks of mongols and the finest egypt had to offer (mongols and egypt were allied against me) sad to say my elite army died. but at the cost of thousands of soldiers. very epich battle with my guys defending a strong position at the top of a cliff. wish i could have saved a replay.

[Vlade the Impaler]

I just love the feel of having one (or however many) armies on campaigns, and tracking the core units throughout their travels. In RTW as Greece, I eventually built up an army of 13 single silver chevron Spartan Hoplites, with 2 generals (6 and 4 star), 1 Greek cavalry, 2 Cretan Archers, and 2 Heavy Onagers. Although I naturally replaced casualties, and the generals eventually as well (probably resulting in an ending army with almost no veterans from the original army), this army spearheaded my campaigns through Dacia and Scythia, then up through that Amazon city at the north end of the map with the crazy scary chariots (that were no match for my men, of course), through Germania and Gaul, then through Britannia. They then mopped up the last of Spain, and moved through Africa. Then I replaced some infantry with more cavalry and archers to combat all the horse archers. They were pretty much destroyed in a series of battles in Egypt, though. They fought 7 or 8 battles over the course of 4 turns. I won all but the last battle, but I had to merge units and add some Armoured Hoplites from other armies. They got very weak, then eventually I accidentally let my guard down and some chariots tore through my lines. It was one of those battles where the Egyptians have like 12 chariot units. My army was essentially destroyed. I had a few archers, about a unit and a half of Spartans, and a general with 3 of his body guard make it out. They joined another army and eventually led the conquest again, but it wasn't the same. Cool to keep track of though.

[gr33kp1mp777]

i had an army of all byzantine guard archers.....nuff said

[Foreign Fruitcake]

Hmmmm, I don't know why they are betraying you if you have a decent General along with the stack.

[Funnage]

I had an army that was mostly Imperial Knights, Teutonic Knight, and a couple Reiters with the highest level Chival general who managed to put down any Spain sent when the Reich took out France and became the greatest land power ever. They were on border patrol and it was the only time I've ever had a 3 silver chevron army, as well as an all cavalry army. I was lucky enough to have captured both castles near Spain's territory to keep this army replenished.

[sgtgoody]

When I first got Reiters I just made a bunch without really knowing how to use them. I was kind of dissappointed so I grouped them all together and used them as a raiding force against Poland. I had 1 general (a new one with 1 star), 4 Gothic knights, and 15 Reiters. I intended it to be a throw away force just to mess things up and it ended up being one of my favorite armies. I couldn't believe how these guys could cut through units if you pay attention and manuever them about. I crushed several siege stacks that Poland was sending my way and even took a city with it by crushing the garrison when they came out to play. It was still there when I upgraded to 1.2 and had to reinstall. Guess I shall try to make a new one like it. Too bad Sicily doesn't get Reiters.

[darox]

I noticed a lot of you have been using two or more generals per army, is there any advantage apart from additional really tough heavy cavalry? I somewhat refrain from using additional generals, because whenever I do the second in command gets killed somehow and I don't even notice till post battle, eek. Then again at times I do take a younger guy along to gain some experience but I sometimes get the feeling they don't learn too much and lastly they seem wasted. Val Pontferrada was such a guy, he joined a crusading army as second in command. He always felt unappreciated and I somewhat left him too long in that army. He survived and returned home, but ended up age 60 something building watchtowers in Timbuktu. Shortly before he died I took a look at his stats and couldn't help but feel sorry for him, because had he led an army he may very well have become one of my greatest generals with those bunch of useful traits.

Well, so far my most professional army in the game is led by Jocabo the Champion, later known as Jocabo the Saint, hehe. He's a born conqueror who became a grand crusader with fine armour, drillmaster and the Holy Chalice ancillaries. He's practically maxed out, except for piety which is 9. He's 48 atm and spent most of his life fighting the Egyptians. The sweet thing about his army -and this is what I cherrish about them- is that they started off as the usual European crusader army but over time they've become accustomed to the Middle East and as such have really professionalised for that field of battle. I replaced the dismounted chiv knights with highly experienced unhorsed knights from my city of Antioch. The original units of Almuhavgars, Jinetes, sword and buckler men, Tercios and mailed knights have gained massive experience and thrive in desert combat due to less heat fatigue (Spain+) and Jocabo himself refrains from using siege equipment but instead resorts to a merc elephant artillery unit hired in Jedda during his campaigns, for that tad more mobility.

The only thing I maybe should have done differently is to have replaced the two units of pavise crossbowmen with something else. They and the two units of peasant archers have gained silver/golden xp levels by now and proved very useful against Egyptian HA, but the crossbowmen seem to tire a bit too fast in the desert.

[CBCRonin]

I noticed a lot of you have been using two or more generals per army, is there any advantage apart from additional really tough heavy cavalry? I somewhat refrain from using additional generals, because whenever I do the second in command gets killed somehow and I don't even notice till post battle, eek. Then again at times I do take a younger guy along to gain some experience but I sometimes get the feeling they don't learn too much and lastly they seem wasted. Val Pontferrada was such a guy, he joined a crusading army as second in command. He always felt unappreciated and I somewhat left him too long in that army. He survived and returned home, but ended up age 60 something building watchtowers in Timbuktu. Shortly before he died I took a look at his stats and couldn't help but feel sorry for him, because had he led an army he may very well have become one of my greatest generals with those bunch of useful traits.

His story made me very sad . There are probably countless individuals in history who shared his fate. Being in the right place at the right time was likely the only decider for generals who weren't born into position.

[Serious Spamurai]

English army of 15 Retinue longbowmen, 4 units of dismounted knights (english and armoured), 1 unit of dismounted generals bodyguard (8 command, full dread general). Ate the whole of italy and greece/the balkans.

[antaeus]

my favourite combination...

was a bunch of ottoman infantry (6) janissary musketeers (6), some halibardeers and a general and spiahi horse archers

so many missiles coming in that enemy heavy infantry would turn and run before getting close... even the heavy dismounted chivalric knights...

and if an enemy sends in heavy cavalry... they would be distracted and killed off by the sipahis.

ottoman archer infantry have amazing defence capabilities, i was surprised... and found it better to keep them rather than upgrade to the janissary archers who had better missile strength and stakes.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

Yes - I've had that frequently - The best one I've had was one with a 28 year old heir with full command and allmost full dread, mainly comprised of gothic knights (mounted and on foot), reiters, musketeers, pikes and halberds (modded with the pike fix, so they made sense) and artillery. All battle hardened with full armour upgrades and retrained numerous times. I used it to give the mongols a severe punsihment by conquering and pillaging allmost every province they had. After conquering, I tore down every building that can be torn down, moved on and let it rebel.

[darox]

His story made me very sad . There are probably countless individuals in history who shared his fate. Being in the right place at the right time was likely the only decider for generals who weren't born into position.

Aye, it was. At the time I couldn't afford an additional army and was also enjoying a baby boom and had like five generals stacking in Pamplona castle without any use. So when the crusade was called I let Val tag along, he was in his late twenties at the time. Naturally his commander Bersiano got all the honours, but Val's charges still proved very effective in battle. Lastly though that baby boom really backfired on me; the three Bersiano brothers parented no children, nor did their sister and neither did Val in fact, and thus both family branches died out. The Bersianos were my greatest family to date, so that, along with Val's fate was really quite depressing.