I thought I'd open up a nice thread for RTW here.
Anyway, I was playing Barbarian Invasion and I am the Eastern Romans.
I have quite a lot of the map under my control (about 38 provinces). I
need only 34 to win but I need Carthage and Rome under my control,
which I am taking my time to get as I don't want to win this game too
soon.
In the middle of the Barbaric lands, one of my cities is under siege
by the Goths. Usually I would attack and lift the siege, but I know
that this time, it is better to let the Goths attack as I have mostly
heavy infantry and a few archers on my side and have an unbreakable
defense. So I wait. Meanwhile, one of my other cities to the east is
sending reinforcements once I successfully defend. I know its going to
be about 2 years before the reinforcements come.
In the meantime, the Goths attack with 2 battering rams, 2 siege
towers and 4 ladders. I defend and after some heavy fighting, my walls
are still intact. While I had only 789 men in my garrison, the Goths
had over 1200. In the end, I am left with 512 men, while the Goths
have 189. They retreat and disappear.
My reinforcement army continues on towards my recently defended city.
They are passing through heavy barbaric forests and BAM! They meet the
Goth Faction leader. His army is utterly devastated but yet, he
attacks me!
So I go into battle mode. There is a small road which runs through
thick forests. My arms lies in wait in the forest. The Goths start
coming towards me. They split up into 3 and start flanking me from my
east and west sides. I notice that the general (the faction leader) is
still right in front of me. And he is alone.
I send my unit of horse archers ahead to flank him. I wait for him in
the woods, hidden. As he comes nearer, I charge him with the horse
archers, ordering them to melee battle him rather than fire. I also
send 3 units of my best infantry charging towards the faction leader.
In less than a minute, he is dead. I know that the Goths are finished
as this was the last of their army and their leader is dead. And he
had no heir.
Still, there are the others flanking me from the west and the east. I
notice the western horses are now behind me and then they disappear.
They are hidden in the trees and I know they will come.
The Eastern horses remain in sight, taunting me to come attack them. I
gather my forces and put archers in the back and 2 units of legions at
the back for the western horses. The rest lie in wait for the Eastern
horses. It's raining and visibility is low, so I know that the enemy
horse archers' arrows will be useless. I lie in wait, prepared to
defend. The western horse archers attack! As they come in, they fire
at my cannon fodder, the useless mercenary archers. They come closer
and are totally cut down by my legions, who attack from opposite sides
with the enemy in the middle. It's hell in the middle for a minute and
then all is quiet.
The eastern horses still lie in plain view, holding their attack.
I choose to be lazy and hold my position, as the time slowly clicks
away. As I did not initiate the attack, time is on my side. At the end
of the timer, I win and the Goth faction lies dead.
Man, this is one of the most intense battles I've had, specially as it
was raining and visibility was next to nothing in the barbaric forest.
Just reminds me why I love this game so much :)
***
....the Phoenix shall rise...
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