Total War Campaign Reports

[Janus]

That's cool with the PBEM; what battles need to be auto-resolved?

Originally Posted by CCIP

Just for fun, I should go and do an STW or MTW AAR. They're still the coolest

That's exactly my opinion with STW and MTW, too. They are the best!
I would say the first TW game you played or owned is the one you find is the best; in my case that is MTW.
I recently read around in the totalwar.org forums and there are some "hardcore" members who say that Shogun is the best of the TW games because it is well balanced and is the most immersive because of the Throne room the assassination movies and so on. Although I agree with both points I say that Shogun's balance and low variety of troops among the factions is one of it's major weak spots because the long term motivation suffers from it. On the other hand there are many things better in Shogun than in Medieval, for instance the 4 turns per year which results in only one income every 4 turns = 1 year and the seasons wich have a big influence on the battles and so on and so on...

[Raptor1]

Personally I think RTW is the best (Especially BI), maybe it's just because it's about my favourite era (Atleast ones they made a TW game about, can't wait for ETW, really...)

[Janus]

I started a MTW campaign with the Holy Roman Empire in early period with the XL mod (glorious achievements not conquer the map style).
In the beginning everything went well: I built garrison armies to protect my provinces with the highest income, conquered Flanders and Friesland from the rebels and so on.
After a few years the English got excommunicated and I took Normandy from them to show the Pope on whose side I am (it was more a symbolic act because the english retreated without a fight to the province of Bretagne).
The following year I wanted to destroy the english army in Bretagne but what do the bloody French? They attack my Flandern, Burgundy and Swabia provinces. I had to retreat into my castles without a fight in all of them, except in Burgundy where the battle took place on a river crossing map with 2 bridges. I managed to defend the province successfully but with heavy losses.
So I let my army which was to destroy the English in Bretagne march back to retake the Flandern province. The French gave it back to me by retreating without a fight and I decided to push on to Burgundy (which by then was under siege by a reinforcing French army) via Isle de France. The year after I reached Isle de France and was about to move my army on to Burgundy the pope demands from me to leave alone the French and retreat from their lands withing 2 years and not attack them for the next 10 years (you know the drill...)
Because I did not want to become excommunicated I retreated from Isle de France and had to watch how Burgundy fall to the French. Now my Empire was seperated into two parts, the smaller one being Provence and the province north of it whichs name I can't remember right now.
In the same year the pope demanded my retreat my Emperor "Conrad I" died from an illness and his heir took over. He turned out to be a weak emperor with little influence and 4 years later the civil war broke out. I decided to support my weak king not only because he owned more provinces and had all the heirs - who have good command values - but because I decided to stick to various "house rules" when I started the campaign.
The rules are: don't attack other catholic factions unless they have been excommunicated, only attack rebels, behave defensively when attacked and only reconquer the lost provinces without "Blitzkrieg" the aggressors etc. All in all you could say I try to be a good catholic faction and do nothing what offends the pope.
So I thought I had to support the new but weak Emperor Conrad II because he would be the person to stick to those rules and the rebel forces demand from him to be more aggressive and expand the Holy Roman Empire and give a damn about what the pope is saying.
Now I am in the second year of the civil war and I have regained most of the provinces from the rebels and their castles are under siege. They will all fall within 2 to 4 years and by that time the civil war should be resolved.

Until the 10 year no-attack-period against the French is over I will take back what is mine (Burgundy).

I'm just upset that the pope did not excommunicate the French when they attacked me, but I guess that's some kind of bug in the game. I've read it numerous times in various AARs that the pope tends to not excommunicate the aggressors but excommunicates the player for defending against the AI and taking back what's his.

[HunterICX]

ROMA ROMA VICTORIUS ROMA!

Nothing can stop the might of the Roman families!
the british belayed siege on Patavio, but soon they will regret they ever touched a single Roman!
In the west the Gaul campaign has good progress we made a army on the run towards the village which is our next objective. Narbo Martius is our next goal.

...

Its going splendid, the campaign versus the gauls is now in full activity. fresh troops from center Italy are pumped into southern France.
thought the british are belaying Siege on my provine of Patavio I dont really feel a big threat..the city is well defended by a lot of archers and I've a Defending army outside in the province to come of aid when things turn bad.

anyhow..my next goal was to take over Narbonensis , the province is just above Spain. so my idea is to head for the Sea and move myself north to take them all...and also to create a frontline against the british.

anyhow the attack on the village:

This is the army fleeing towards the village, the ones you see running didnt survive..the rest which was reinforcement of the gaulish army fled away as you can see in the minimap:



the Siege begins!
I alway rain hell upon them before entering the city...good way to destroy their morale.



Taking the street towards the Village plaza:


VICTORY FOR ROMAN ARMS!




I must say the resistance starts to build up, they are getting heavy infantry and cavalery, I really need to get Cohort units and triarii spearmen.

HunterICX

[HunterICX]

People of the Julii!
the British have attacked the city of Patavio, with great defeat in store of them. our Roman archers had a field day. killing the attacking force in the hundreds!
War has declared against Spain for attempting to kill our gran General in the gaulish campaign with a amatuer Assasin.

In the gaulish campaign the village of Lugduno is under siege and again Roman arms are victorious.
also a new Era has come for the Roman army..Legionares, now every roman civilian can join the army and fight for the might of Rome!

...

Like said above the british felt how it is to be showered with arrows constantly..their armies flet before they even laid a finger on the walls or any roman.
too bad...for them.

Their hopeless last resort:



The siege on Lugduno by the Gauls:



Roman Soldiers say ''Welcome to Lugduno'':



Saying Goodbye:



Another Captain bites the dust:



HunterICX

[fatty]

Edward the Chilvarous of England sieges the last French bastion, Dijon, 1282.


Cannons and catapults softening defences.


Edward's guard waiting to join street battle raging within.

[SmokinTep]

I love the night battles.............

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by SmokinTep

I love the night battles.............

Yeh, I always bring tons of archers with me if I know to expect a night battle. Looks awesome to launch a huuuge volley of flaming arrows towards the enemy.

[SmokinTep]

It is a site to behold............

[fatty]

Don't think it was a night battle literally. It started out as happy cheerful day when I attacked but I hit 'wait' and got that cool apocalyptic-looking sky which seemed appropriate for France's absolute last stand against English power, so I ran with it. The sky I think is part of the Stainless Steel mod I'm using. I'm not even sure if my general Edward is qualified to conduct night attacks but I'll check later.

[Slang]

Man, I think I've been living under a rock or something. I only got into rome total war a few months ago.

All I can say is it sucked me in. And being an older game it runs great on my old machine. plus its only $20 bucks for the game and BI expansion.

Anyhow, I played a Julii campaign on M/M settings. Was learning along the way, but ended up winning it pretty handily. Though the british were really a thorn in my side. I was content to leave them be after taking all their holdings on the Euro main land. But noooooooooooo they had to send pathetic army after army south across the channel to try to reclaim their lost territory. Eventually I lost patience and sent a rag tag force north to wipe them out once and for all. It ended up almost getting wiped out itself, but managed to prevail. Though just barely.

Ended up fighting only the Brutii in the civil war. Scipii seemed content to stay in North Africa while we were duking it out. Ended up fighting some bloody hard battles on two fronts with the Brutii. Then the fronts merged into one and I drove them South through Greece. I stopped that campaign there seeing as I controlled Rome and had around 55 - 60 Provinces.

Next, I had been reading about wich faction was the hardest to play and some people said Selucid. So I figured "why not"? and started a Selucid campain on VH/VH. Actually I was seduced by their troop selection too. By end game you can have good Phalanxes, Cataphracts, Companion Cavalry, Scythed Chariots, Elephants and Legionaries too! Throw in some Cretan archer mercenaries with 3 silver chevrons because they've been in my armies so long, and you've got an elite force.

So i'm still going with this campaign now. The begining was deffinately tough. By then end of like 3 turns I was at war with everyone it seemed like. I remember looking through the diplomacy scroll, and all the other factions only had 1 or 2 enemies. Then I look at mine and there are like six!

Parthia, Armenia, Pontus and Egypt were constantly attacking. And consistently beaten back. Pontus is gone. Parthia, Armenia, and Egypt are down to only 2 provinces each. They flee from battle whenever possible now. Though Armenia has a full stack on its way south. It will be their last. I have an army in position to crush it, and another working its way north to their last holdings.

Thank god the Greek City States held off on attacking me. Though they constantly had spies in my cities causing unrest. They ended up getting clobbered by the Brutii, and in an act of desperation ended up attacking one of my weak provinces. I had been wary of them though and kept a detatchment within 2 turns of them. They now only own Rhodes, and I have a fleet on its way there now. Can't wait to get my hands on that tasty Wonder of the World, and its 40% increase in sea trade. Can't remember what its called.

[HunterICX]

Sound like someone is having fun and is very busy, good report Slang

HunterICX

[Raptor1]

That would be the Colossus of Rhodes, A statue of the sun god Helios, Slang, Good luck taking it

[SmokinTep]

Started a new campaign last night as the French. Milan is a thorn in my side.

[Slang]

hey thanx guys. deffo was busy with it, but then fell by the wayside due to real life. Oh well you know how it goes...... its always still there when I get back to it.

Good luck with the new campaign Smokin. MTW2 looks really interesting too.