light infantry with smoke bombs that reduce ranged defence, we've seen those already
-
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Completed Let us RECLAIM THE HOLY LAND
- Thread starter Darth Roxor
- Start date
light infantry with smoke bombs that reduce ranged defence, we've seen those already
hello friend
Arcane
Tribe of al-Badd Hombres for points
Al-Nefud for the nignogs
Al-Nefud for the nignogs
Erebus
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,850
Oh, okay. I thought the smoke bomb was an upgrade available to some units, not something possessed by a specific unit.
I'll flip-flop to the desert, then.
al-tribe of al-ducats
Jordan
Jordan
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2017
- Messages
- 31,837
Get those ₪[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel_sign']₪[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel_sign']₪[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel_sign']₪.[/URL][/URL][/URL]
Also get virile strong Nubian yoofs.
Also get virile strong Nubian yoofs.
SURAH 8 - SHORT WORK
Al-Baggara tribe showers us with bags of dinars.
Funny thing I notice is that I end up with 10k gold afterwards. It seems the bonus money upgrade works not just for battle, but for all gold gains in general.
Time to rescue some nubile Nubians. I take all the obvious heavy-hitters for the mission (heroes + assassins + heavy cav) and the turk bowmen. Let's get it on!
oi I gots sand stuck in me panties
Sebua is at the oasis to the east. His retinue are 23 nubian warriors, so you can bet your ass he's going to die the moment anything reaches him.
The odds of that rise even further when you inspect the enemy units.
Crusader archers and 2x templars.
Single knights templar
And finally some scrubs - 2x bowmen, 2x vassals, 2x pilgrims.
Needless to say, we might wanna hurry.
The race for the oasis is on. YALLA YALLA!
Hastened by the will of Allah, we make it there first.
I try to head for the out-of-position knights templar, but they leg it once Sal and the horsemen get close. I don't want to chase them all the way towards the spearmen, so I withdraw.
Take up positions, men.
I let the cavalry disperse the enemy a bit while our turks bombard them.
The bowmen are sent running very fast, after which I focus on the pilgrims.
It's also then that I notice how Saladin's stamina has dropped to some 20%. The same is true of the horsemen.
The knights, meanwhile, are all fresh.
how the fuck
The rest of our dudes, except for the assassins, have nearly spent their stamina as well. WTF.
Fortunately, I can just cast confusion on the knights while the infantry tackles the scrublord vassals.
The templars arrive to the scene soon.
And they are also well rested.
HOW THE FUCK IS THIS POSSIBLE
I send the archers running while our infantry regroups. Cavalry is still busy with the knights templar.
Sturdy buggers, I'll give 'em that.
BRACE FOR IMPACT
Sal & co. are done with the knights just in time to join the show. With their 0 stamina they won't do much but at least the initial trampling shock will kill some gits.
Turan's been taking a beating, so I retreat him while the rest clean up.
After which it's just stragglers from the retreating archer regiments.
Nice.
Wow, not even any politicool event this time.
Reinforcements are fairly cheap.
Also, we got these Nubians for free. Their stats are completely retarded - they have a whopping 80 ranged defence, which is crazy high and explains why I had so much trouble shooting them out during the crusader campaign, but on the flipside their armour and resistance are both a big fat zero. No cover, all man. These javelins, though.
We'll make use of them anyway.
Since we also have a lot of cash left, I initiate phase 1 of the Grand De-Seljukification of the army.
And so unlock these mameluk lancers.
Good news: they have higher damage, armour, hp and resistance than the light horsemen.
Bad news: not by a whole lot.
Terrible news: they have 0 ranged defence
... I fucking swear
Still, better that than Seljuks
Better news appear as I inspect their skillsets though, because these are doubleplusgood for light cav, especially persistence, to the point that I wasn't sure what to pick. In the end I went with persistence and expert riding.
So there we go. No new map unlocks, no events, no nuffin. Which leaves the same selection as last time: Asia Minor (hamburger hill), Lesser Armenia (hilltop with guard towers), Jordan (ambush in a sandstorm)
Al-Baggara tribe showers us with bags of dinars.
Funny thing I notice is that I end up with 10k gold afterwards. It seems the bonus money upgrade works not just for battle, but for all gold gains in general.
Time to rescue some nubile Nubians. I take all the obvious heavy-hitters for the mission (heroes + assassins + heavy cav) and the turk bowmen. Let's get it on!
oi I gots sand stuck in me panties
Sebua is at the oasis to the east. His retinue are 23 nubian warriors, so you can bet your ass he's going to die the moment anything reaches him.
The odds of that rise even further when you inspect the enemy units.
Crusader archers and 2x templars.
Single knights templar
And finally some scrubs - 2x bowmen, 2x vassals, 2x pilgrims.
Needless to say, we might wanna hurry.
The race for the oasis is on. YALLA YALLA!
Hastened by the will of Allah, we make it there first.
I try to head for the out-of-position knights templar, but they leg it once Sal and the horsemen get close. I don't want to chase them all the way towards the spearmen, so I withdraw.
Take up positions, men.
I let the cavalry disperse the enemy a bit while our turks bombard them.
The bowmen are sent running very fast, after which I focus on the pilgrims.
It's also then that I notice how Saladin's stamina has dropped to some 20%. The same is true of the horsemen.
The knights, meanwhile, are all fresh.
how the fuck
The rest of our dudes, except for the assassins, have nearly spent their stamina as well. WTF.
Fortunately, I can just cast confusion on the knights while the infantry tackles the scrublord vassals.
The templars arrive to the scene soon.
And they are also well rested.
HOW THE FUCK IS THIS POSSIBLE
I send the archers running while our infantry regroups. Cavalry is still busy with the knights templar.
Sturdy buggers, I'll give 'em that.
BRACE FOR IMPACT
Sal & co. are done with the knights just in time to join the show. With their 0 stamina they won't do much but at least the initial trampling shock will kill some gits.
Turan's been taking a beating, so I retreat him while the rest clean up.
After which it's just stragglers from the retreating archer regiments.
Nice.
Wow, not even any politicool event this time.
Reinforcements are fairly cheap.
Also, we got these Nubians for free. Their stats are completely retarded - they have a whopping 80 ranged defence, which is crazy high and explains why I had so much trouble shooting them out during the crusader campaign, but on the flipside their armour and resistance are both a big fat zero. No cover, all man. These javelins, though.
We'll make use of them anyway.
Since we also have a lot of cash left, I initiate phase 1 of the Grand De-Seljukification of the army.
And so unlock these mameluk lancers.
Good news: they have higher damage, armour, hp and resistance than the light horsemen.
Bad news: not by a whole lot.
Terrible news: they have 0 ranged defence
... I fucking swear
Still, better that than Seljuks
Better news appear as I inspect their skillsets though, because these are doubleplusgood for light cav, especially persistence, to the point that I wasn't sure what to pick. In the end I went with persistence and expert riding.
So there we go. No new map unlocks, no events, no nuffin. Which leaves the same selection as last time: Asia Minor (hamburger hill), Lesser Armenia (hilltop with guard towers), Jordan (ambush in a sandstorm)
Also, we're now half past the Saracen campaign.
It sure goes faster without the interlude battles.
It sure goes faster without the interlude battles.
Jordan pls.
hello friend
Arcane
Asia Little
SURAH 9 - HAMBURGER HILL
Dis gon be gud, men
Sabotage seems very prudent for this map, so I spend our last dinars on it.
YALLA YALLA!
Whoa, them FX. Allah himself is showing us his benevolence this day!
Storm works similarly to all other weather effects, namely it cuts archer range by half and also severely impacts archery stats. How exactly, and how does it differ from sandstorms or nights or fogs, don't ask me. In King Arthur storm blocked shooting completely, for example, but it ain't the case here.
The crusaders are well fortified. Along this first ridge, we have a catapult, two guard towers, some vassals and bowmen.
Further along the same ridge, longshields, light cav, crus archers and 2 more guard towers.
Behind them, the second line of defences spans 3 guard towers and also some more heathen regiments. Fairly trashy, just crusaders of all sorts - Crusaders heavy inf, crusader arrerz, crusader elite light cav.
Finally two towers on the hilltop itself.
Well, I must say I'm relieved. Guard towers are a joke if you know what you're doing. I feared there'd be many more ballistas and trebuchets and shieeeet. UNLESS, of course, there are more of them hidden among the trees, which is a big possibility.
And most importantly, the storm also cuts the fortifications' ranges by half, which you can see if you spot the faint red dotted line running along the ground to the left.
Battle starts, crusaders leg it to the top.
Good that I picked sabotage to get rid of that one lonely catapult.
Poof! Off it goes.
Let us advance through yonder trees.
Maybe we can do something funky here and lure the cavalry into our spearmen while the assassins move from the side against the crusader arrer boyz.
YUP
Holy shit, the cavalry is fucking dead before the assassins can even get to the archers
Now, for these shits.
Heroes have naturally superhigh ranged defence, so we can order them to clear them out.
The Langschilde are not at all amused at this befoulment of german engineering and ordnung, so they come over to stop us.
No need to fight them there, so I take them back to the rest of our dudes.
I also try to javelin them, which doesn't kill a single dude
Bumrush is much more effective!
Let's get back to wrecking shit.
The vassals will have to be lured away from the tower first. No need for unnecessary rambo action.
Sal and the Circassians do the clean up. We can now proceed to the second ridge.
I first set up the army at its foot, in case the crusaders on the hill wake up.
Then Sal and the Circs can do their business.
OH NO HIDDEN WHITE COMPANY
WHATEVER WILL I DO
Seriously, this game sometimes
There's another regiment of Irenaeus' fanclub at the other side as well.
I don't feel like engaging them with the horsemen, so I lure them back to the rest instead.
Meanwhile Saladin actually loses 1 bodyguard in his fight, which is something I would have never thought possible
Afterwards, I scout the nearby forests with the mameluk lancers, in case any other surprises are hidden there. There aren't. However, it's a pretty good spot to park the light cav, so I leave them there.
EY, OH, LET'S GO
The cowardly crusader elite flee the moment we start shooting them...
... only to bounce back just a moment later, straight into our spearmen
Other infidels follow soon.
Thus the battle is joined!
However, the spearmen are getting clobbered by the heavy infantry now that they're done with the cavalry, so I retreat them.
And it turns the crusaders actually weren't engaged by anyone else, so they're about to run into our turks
BUT FORTUNATELY THEY RECONSIDER (lolwut).
Meanwhile, I give the cavalry the order to murder the archers.
There was another fucking regiment of heavy infantry left on the hill though, and it charges into our lancers
I retreat them the moment the archers are dead.
Sal and the Circs are having a field day in the meantime.
Some seljuk warriors break and flee, lol.
Finally there's just one crusader regiment left on the field.
And they don't keep us waiting.
YOU HAVE FUN THERE BOIS
Victory was inevitable
U w0t? No politicool events with free stuff AGAIN?!
FFS! BISMILLAH!
I swap the near-ded seljuks for full hp lancers and other seljuks from the reserves. Reinforcement costs are fairly acceptable.
Assassins have reached max level
They can now pick this ability. It looks fairly trollish, but you have to remember we usually don't have a whole lot of time available to just stand around, and also given that these folks have 1600 HP a piece, it would take forever for them to regen anyway.
I picked masterwork waffen. Arms-bearer was also tempting, but the Saracen campaign has so few fucking items, much less GOOD items, it's not even particularly worth it.
Asia Minor also got us this reric - the robe of caliph Harun ar-Rashid, famous for being the protagonist of most of the tales from the Arabian Nights (he had a pretty colourful life in general too). Pretty bad to be honest, but I still give it to Turan, since he's lagging a few levels behind.
Hrmpf, so many upgrade points, so little geld. Guess I'll hold on to them for now.
We have two choices for JIHAD!!! Jordan (sandstorm) and Lesser Armenia (hilltop with guard towers).
You can think about the answer well, cuz I won't be updating this before Friday. During this downtime, you can watch a thematic cartoon instead
Dis gon be gud, men
Sabotage seems very prudent for this map, so I spend our last dinars on it.
YALLA YALLA!
Whoa, them FX. Allah himself is showing us his benevolence this day!
Storm works similarly to all other weather effects, namely it cuts archer range by half and also severely impacts archery stats. How exactly, and how does it differ from sandstorms or nights or fogs, don't ask me. In King Arthur storm blocked shooting completely, for example, but it ain't the case here.
The crusaders are well fortified. Along this first ridge, we have a catapult, two guard towers, some vassals and bowmen.
Further along the same ridge, longshields, light cav, crus archers and 2 more guard towers.
Behind them, the second line of defences spans 3 guard towers and also some more heathen regiments. Fairly trashy, just crusaders of all sorts - Crusaders heavy inf, crusader arrerz, crusader elite light cav.
Finally two towers on the hilltop itself.
Well, I must say I'm relieved. Guard towers are a joke if you know what you're doing. I feared there'd be many more ballistas and trebuchets and shieeeet. UNLESS, of course, there are more of them hidden among the trees, which is a big possibility.
And most importantly, the storm also cuts the fortifications' ranges by half, which you can see if you spot the faint red dotted line running along the ground to the left.
Battle starts, crusaders leg it to the top.
Good that I picked sabotage to get rid of that one lonely catapult.
Poof! Off it goes.
Let us advance through yonder trees.
Maybe we can do something funky here and lure the cavalry into our spearmen while the assassins move from the side against the crusader arrer boyz.
YUP
Holy shit, the cavalry is fucking dead before the assassins can even get to the archers
Now, for these shits.
Heroes have naturally superhigh ranged defence, so we can order them to clear them out.
The Langschilde are not at all amused at this befoulment of german engineering and ordnung, so they come over to stop us.
No need to fight them there, so I take them back to the rest of our dudes.
I also try to javelin them, which doesn't kill a single dude
Bumrush is much more effective!
Let's get back to wrecking shit.
The vassals will have to be lured away from the tower first. No need for unnecessary rambo action.
Sal and the Circassians do the clean up. We can now proceed to the second ridge.
I first set up the army at its foot, in case the crusaders on the hill wake up.
Then Sal and the Circs can do their business.
OH NO HIDDEN WHITE COMPANY
WHATEVER WILL I DO
Seriously, this game sometimes
There's another regiment of Irenaeus' fanclub at the other side as well.
I don't feel like engaging them with the horsemen, so I lure them back to the rest instead.
Meanwhile Saladin actually loses 1 bodyguard in his fight, which is something I would have never thought possible
Afterwards, I scout the nearby forests with the mameluk lancers, in case any other surprises are hidden there. There aren't. However, it's a pretty good spot to park the light cav, so I leave them there.
EY, OH, LET'S GO
The cowardly crusader elite flee the moment we start shooting them...
... only to bounce back just a moment later, straight into our spearmen
Other infidels follow soon.
Thus the battle is joined!
However, the spearmen are getting clobbered by the heavy infantry now that they're done with the cavalry, so I retreat them.
And it turns the crusaders actually weren't engaged by anyone else, so they're about to run into our turks
BUT FORTUNATELY THEY RECONSIDER (lolwut).
Meanwhile, I give the cavalry the order to murder the archers.
There was another fucking regiment of heavy infantry left on the hill though, and it charges into our lancers
I retreat them the moment the archers are dead.
Sal and the Circs are having a field day in the meantime.
Some seljuk warriors break and flee, lol.
Finally there's just one crusader regiment left on the field.
And they don't keep us waiting.
YOU HAVE FUN THERE BOIS
Victory was inevitable
U w0t? No politicool events with free stuff AGAIN?!
I swap the near-ded seljuks for full hp lancers and other seljuks from the reserves. Reinforcement costs are fairly acceptable.
Assassins have reached max level
They can now pick this ability. It looks fairly trollish, but you have to remember we usually don't have a whole lot of time available to just stand around, and also given that these folks have 1600 HP a piece, it would take forever for them to regen anyway.
I picked masterwork waffen. Arms-bearer was also tempting, but the Saracen campaign has so few fucking items, much less GOOD items, it's not even particularly worth it.
Asia Minor also got us this reric - the robe of caliph Harun ar-Rashid, famous for being the protagonist of most of the tales from the Arabian Nights (he had a pretty colourful life in general too). Pretty bad to be honest, but I still give it to Turan, since he's lagging a few levels behind.
Hrmpf, so many upgrade points, so little geld. Guess I'll hold on to them for now.
We have two choices for JIHAD!!! Jordan (sandstorm) and Lesser Armenia (hilltop with guard towers).
You can think about the answer well, cuz I won't be updating this before Friday. During this downtime, you can watch a thematic cartoon instead
hello friend
Arcane
Jordan
That's why you should do hard mission when they are available and not wait until they become "hard".
To be fair, it wouldn't have been too different at any earlier stage. Sal and Asad would just bust the guard towers, then the rest would keal the crusaders
A lot of votes for sure 
SURAH 10 - NBA HANGTIME
Michael Jordan calls and we answer. I was thinking of taking the bonus engineering points, but I'm pretty sure Turan's engineering skill bonus will suffice.
So where's the supposed sandstorm?
Oh right, it did say "they will attack as soon as the storm clears". Shieeeet.
We sure have a huge field to set our troops up in.
I gather everyone at the mosque, with two fire ballistas (no more is halal for this map)
At the flanks I put the light cavalry. Here
and here.
I put them there for scouting purposes, to spot the incoming enemy for our ballistas and archers, because I was sure there'd be a sandstorm raging. Obviously no sandstorm came, but still, I also surrounded them with spike traps to lure the enemy into.
Battle starts - imagine my surprise when all these infidels suddenly spring into view!
There's a lot of them, but they are fairly trashy.
This biggest group here is likely gonna do the most trubble. 2x Crusader Elite and 2x English Spearmen deserve mentioning, the rest are regular vassals and bowmen and crusaders and spearmen. I think they have some White Companies in there too.
Second group, more (or less, depending how you look at it) of the same. Crusaders, bowmen, vassals/white company.
Finally three groups of light cav on the flank.
Needless to say, I retreat the mameluk lancers, astounded by the sudden heathen deep strike. Let's see if I can lure the enemy cavalry into the spike trap.
Yarp. 10 dudes get instakilled Shame only one regiment fell for it but it's something.
The cav on the other front isn't as keen on walking into the traps. However they also aren't very keen on pursuing our mameluks, lol.
Which makes them easy target for the ballistas, especially once they ride into the caltrops
Same goes for these. Time to form up and stick some spears up their ass.
Ffs the assholes make a break for it and head to the ballista. Obviously we can't let them do it.
These dudes here are super battered by the caltrops, archers and ballistas, and finally they even get some javelins in the face. As good as dead they are.
Here come the other light cavs.
Meanwhile I notice the lancers just flying the white flag COMPLETELY FOR NO REASON AT ALL. They didn't even lose a single dude, ffs! This is mostly because, if you can remember, the last time we used this specific lancer regiment was in Acre, when they were reduced to 1 guy. Morale penalties from losses actually carry over to subsequent battles in this game, so this unit already started at near-broken morale. Still pretty ridiculous for them to run away here though.
Also very uncool thing this because they'd be really useful now.
So instead I have to face the cav with other units, and that means free trample damage, even against shitty light cavalry, even uphill, even on caltrops. Sigh.
More enemies a-coming.
Meanwhile over here, the spearmen get within range of our archers. Dis gon be gud
Finally done with the cavalry, now for the vassals. Good thing that vassals are a non-problem, even moreso now that the lancers have rallied.
As can be easily observed
The turk bowmen are going berserk on the spearmen and vassals on the west flank. Good. Means I can divert all units to the east.
Like Saladin and the Circs.
Look at 'em run
The enemy is bunching up in the middle with bowmen. We might need to address these.
Some of our turks fall, but each volley we send decimates the heathen archers.
The crusaders are back for more beating.
And so are these as well
Some Crusaders and English Spearmen manage to break through and attack.
Knowing that the spearmen are actually p. serious, I send the palace guards against them. Meanwhile the Circassians engage the Crusaders - imagine my
when I noticed them taking big casualties. The crusaders were already stomped into the ground by the artillery, FFS.
Meanwhile in the west, some other dudes suicide on caltrops
It was only here that I noticed the Circs' absurd losses and retreated them.
Meanwhile the palace guards also started taking a beating from the spearmen. Armour piercing is p. serious.
The final rallied dudes from the west try to reach us. They almost manage to do so, but the turks are relentless.
Until there's only stragglers left, who broke once, then rallied and remained frozen in place.
Sup bois.
That was certainly a lot of enemy dudes. Good that they were so trashy or we might have been in trouble.
No event for free stuff again
Reinforcements are a bit steep, mostly cuz of the dead cavalry and palace guards.
Also, Michael Jordan blessed us with these Saracen Bombardiers that we can now recruit. They carry Byzantine basketballs that explode into smokescreens when thrown. What exactly is the ranged protection you get from these is, as always, unknown. Also, their stats are so ridiculously pathetic they are barely only just slightly better than the seljuk warriors, and not even at everything, either. We will definitely not make any use of these.
Some level-ups.
Arms-bearer for the bowmen is a no-brainer, since they are almost the only units with good gear that we have.
Experienced Retainers is also a no-brainer for the palace guards. Shield wall is unnecessary when they have 104 ranged def to begin with, and heroic defence is crap.
Phase 2 of the grand de-seljukification of the army involves turning our level 7 spearmen into abbasid lancers. It's so cheap, we might as well do it. Plus, with a fast-attack weapon and a bonus armour armour (hue) that we've just looted, these guys are going to be extra effective against just about anything fielded by the enemy.
Some ability reassignments. Holding the ground (bonus vs trampling) is a no-brainer for spearmen. Shield wall is a no-brainer for any squishies.
Also, another funny display of this game's functioning: this particular regiment had 0 ranged defence. I took shield wall, which is supposed to be "+50% ranged defence", and the stat rose to a whopping 50. Meanwhile the other lancer regiment, now in reserves, which has the Battered accolade (+30 ranged def) AND shield wall also has a total of 50.
i dont get this game
We have some spare funds, so I do something retarded.
And unlock these guys. As opposed to the bombardiers, they carry explosive basketballs that do RIDICULOUSLY HIGH DAMAGE. I think they even do more than double the damage of the turk bowmen. I suspect they work like crossbowmen and have half the normal archery range, but in turn they don't have armour-piercing, just hueg domoges. We'll find out their specifics soon, but I suspect fun, fun, fun!
Only 24 dudes per squad, pathetic HP and defences, so we'll really want to keep them out of harm, though.
Jordan unlocks a new province:
More nubile nubians! Although this will unlock them for recruitment, and I'm not even sure if we want to waste cash on upgrading the retarded seljuk warriors. We have nothing to swap them in for anyway.
This sounds dreadfully familiar...
Aaaaaand yep, it's basically a 1:1 mirror of the German plan in the crusader campaign, with the one difference being that we have to storm the place first to build our defences. So yeah, go in -> wipe the crusader outpost -> set up catapults -> wipe the crusader reinforcements. Here's hoping for many fire ballista spots.
Apart from Sinai, we can also still go to Lesser Armenia (hilltop with guard towers).
These two are the final "non-HQ" maps for us to clear out. After that, it's gonna be Very Hard+ (tm) only.
You can now begin to discuss!!! which province is better and why.
SURAH 10 - NBA HANGTIME
Michael Jordan calls and we answer. I was thinking of taking the bonus engineering points, but I'm pretty sure Turan's engineering skill bonus will suffice.
So where's the supposed sandstorm?
Oh right, it did say "they will attack as soon as the storm clears". Shieeeet.
We sure have a huge field to set our troops up in.
I gather everyone at the mosque, with two fire ballistas (no more is halal for this map
)
At the flanks I put the light cavalry. Here
and here.
I put them there for scouting purposes, to spot the incoming enemy for our ballistas and archers, because I was sure there'd be a sandstorm raging. Obviously no sandstorm came, but still, I also surrounded them with spike traps to lure the enemy into.
Battle starts - imagine my surprise when all these infidels suddenly spring into view!
There's a lot of them, but they are fairly trashy.
This biggest group here is likely gonna do the most trubble. 2x Crusader Elite and 2x English Spearmen deserve mentioning, the rest are regular vassals and bowmen and crusaders and spearmen. I think they have some White Companies in there too.
Second group, more (or less, depending how you look at it) of the same. Crusaders, bowmen, vassals/white company.
Finally three groups of light cav on the flank.
Needless to say, I retreat the mameluk lancers, astounded by the sudden heathen deep strike. Let's see if I can lure the enemy cavalry into the spike trap.
Yarp. 10 dudes get instakilled
Shame only one regiment fell for it but it's something.
The cav on the other front isn't as keen on walking into the traps. However they also aren't very keen on pursuing our mameluks, lol.
Which makes them easy target for the ballistas, especially once they ride into the caltrops
Same goes for these. Time to form up and stick some spears up their ass.
Ffs the assholes make a break for it and head to the ballista. Obviously we can't let them do it.
These dudes here are super battered by the caltrops, archers and ballistas, and finally they even get some javelins in the face. As good as dead they are.
Here come the other light cavs.
Meanwhile I notice the lancers just flying the white flag COMPLETELY FOR NO REASON AT ALL. They didn't even lose a single dude, ffs! This is mostly because, if you can remember, the last time we used this specific lancer regiment was in Acre, when they were reduced to 1 guy. Morale penalties from losses actually carry over to subsequent battles in this game, so this unit already started at near-broken morale. Still pretty ridiculous for them to run away here though.
Also very uncool thing this because they'd be really useful now.
So instead I have to face the cav with other units, and that means free trample damage, even against shitty light cavalry, even uphill, even on caltrops. Sigh.
More enemies a-coming.
Meanwhile over here, the spearmen get within range of our archers. Dis gon be gud
Finally done with the cavalry, now for the vassals. Good thing that vassals are a non-problem, even moreso now that the lancers have rallied.
As can be easily observed
The turk bowmen are going berserk on the spearmen and vassals on the west flank. Good. Means I can divert all units to the east.
Like Saladin and the Circs.
Look at 'em run
The enemy is bunching up in the middle with bowmen. We might need to address these.
Some of our turks fall, but each volley we send decimates the heathen archers.
The crusaders are back for more beating.
And so are these as well
Some Crusaders and English Spearmen manage to break through and attack.
Knowing that the spearmen are actually p. serious, I send the palace guards against them. Meanwhile the Circassians engage the Crusaders - imagine my
when I noticed them taking big casualties. The crusaders were already stomped into the ground by the artillery, FFS.
Meanwhile in the west, some other dudes suicide on caltrops
It was only here that I noticed the Circs' absurd losses and retreated them.
Meanwhile the palace guards also started taking a beating from the spearmen. Armour piercing is p. serious.
The final rallied dudes from the west try to reach us. They almost manage to do so, but the turks are relentless.
Until there's only stragglers left, who broke once, then rallied and remained frozen in place.
Sup bois.
That was certainly a lot of enemy dudes. Good that they were so trashy or we might have been in trouble.
No event for free stuff again
Reinforcements are a bit steep, mostly cuz of the dead cavalry and palace guards.
Also, Michael Jordan blessed us with these Saracen Bombardiers that we can now recruit. They carry Byzantine basketballs that explode into smokescreens when thrown. What exactly is the ranged protection you get from these is, as always, unknown. Also, their stats are so ridiculously pathetic they are barely only just slightly better than the seljuk warriors, and not even at everything, either. We will definitely not make any use of these.
Some level-ups.
Arms-bearer for the bowmen is a no-brainer, since they are almost the only units with good gear that we have.
Experienced Retainers is also a no-brainer for the palace guards. Shield wall is unnecessary when they have 104 ranged def to begin with, and heroic defence is crap.
Phase 2 of the grand de-seljukification of the army involves turning our level 7 spearmen into abbasid lancers. It's so cheap, we might as well do it. Plus, with a fast-attack weapon and a bonus armour armour (hue) that we've just looted, these guys are going to be extra effective against just about anything fielded by the enemy.
Some ability reassignments. Holding the ground (bonus vs trampling) is a no-brainer for spearmen. Shield wall is a no-brainer for any squishies.
Also, another funny display of this game's functioning: this particular regiment had 0 ranged defence. I took shield wall, which is supposed to be "+50% ranged defence", and the stat rose to a whopping 50. Meanwhile the other lancer regiment, now in reserves, which has the Battered accolade (+30 ranged def) AND shield wall also has a total of 50.
i dont get this game
We have some spare funds, so I do something retarded.
And unlock these guys. As opposed to the bombardiers, they carry explosive basketballs that do RIDICULOUSLY HIGH DAMAGE. I think they even do more than double the damage of the turk bowmen. I suspect they work like crossbowmen and have half the normal archery range, but in turn they don't have armour-piercing, just hueg domoges. We'll find out their specifics soon, but I suspect fun, fun, fun!
Only 24 dudes per squad, pathetic HP and defences, so we'll really want to keep them out of harm, though.
Jordan unlocks a new province:
More nubile nubians! Although this will unlock them for recruitment, and I'm not even sure if we want to waste cash on upgrading the retarded seljuk warriors. We have nothing to swap them in for anyway.
This sounds dreadfully familiar...
Aaaaaand yep, it's basically a 1:1 mirror of the German plan in the crusader campaign, with the one difference being that we have to storm the place first to build our defences. So yeah, go in -> wipe the crusader outpost -> set up catapults -> wipe the crusader reinforcements. Here's hoping for many fire ballista spots.
Apart from Sinai, we can also still go to Lesser Armenia (hilltop with guard towers).
These two are the final "non-HQ" maps for us to clear out. After that, it's gonna be Very Hard+ (tm) only.
You can now begin to discuss!!! which province is better and why.
hello friend
Arcane
Your army is lacking in diversity. You need to support the bruthas in the hood.
Sinai.
Sinai.
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2017
- Messages
- 31,837
No borders for Sinai!
SURAH 11 - TEUTONIC PLATES
Let's see what we can find in this here Sinai. It was a p. bloody fight during the Crusader campaign, so odds are it's going to be the same here.
Our troops start in a familiar ravine.
The enemy are gathered around a guard post, and they are kind of uncool. 2x crusader archers, 1x spearmen, 1x foot knights is all fun and games, but the three regiments of Styrian Infantry are going to be very bad for business.
I let the mameluk lancers scout ahead because the mission map showed trebuchets on the hills.
There are none here in practice tho, so I do a Complex Flanking Manoeuvre (tm) instead and park the riders in nearby bushes.
Arrows, ho
I tell the heavy cavalry to dance around with targets painted on their backs while we shoop the archers.
Rambo spearmen try to bumrush us. I first softened them up with arrows, then with javelins, and now there are grenades flying towards them.
Boom! A single hail of 'nades blows up over 10 of them
The styrians gather up and start advancing.
I soften them up as much as possible before retreating the archers... but they still get two javelin salvos in
I fucking hate those fucking javelins so bad
The grenades also explode the foot knights real good lol
Soon there's just stragglers left.
Hello there, do you have a moment to talk about the prophet Muhammad (PBUH)?
Phase 2 beginneth.
Aww yiss. Check out all the glowing tiles - these are spots in which we can set up fire ballistas.
I put down 5 of them, then drop 4 patches of caltrops. This is going to be a slaughter.
One bad thing though is that two of the ballistas are so far in the back they are not very likely to take part in too much action.
Then battle starts... and it turns out we got cucked
We can take all the ballistas and stick them up our asses when the enemy has multiple longshields at his disposal. Apart from that also some vassals and bowmen and a bunch of foot knights/crusaders.
Oh well.
Bombardment is still good enough to break through their morale at least.
Especially when they have vassals in their midst.
Teehee.
The longshields eventually get too close for comfort, so I pull back the archers and prep the troops.
Turns out, being shot at all the time on the advance is a p. stressful thing to experience
They still put up some resistance though, especially when joined by their friends, but nothing we can't handle.
The weird thing is that the briefing map said there'd be two crusader armies coming against us though, with another one arriving from the southwest. Maybe it was just FAKE NEWS
We can finally get rid of the damned bowmen.
All too easy.
Well, shit, here's the second army after all. 3x light cav, 1x crusader knights, 1x knights templar. And we're already a bit battered, so this may suck.
I take all cavalry + lancers to the flank in anticipation of the crusader assault.
Alhamdulillah, they are kind enough to bunch up and get clobbered by artillery.
BRACE FOR IMPACT
The lancers took the biggest hit to the face (the templars). Good that we have a spare regiment of them in the reserves, still I reinforce them with Asad.
The mameluks are getting clobbered by knights, so I retreat them and order Turan in their place.
Glorious battle!
P. big losses all in all, mostly turks and lancers.
Fucking javelins, I swear
And, of course, no free stuff. I fear we may have depleted all the free stuff events at this point, which is p. bad.
We got this reric at Sinai. YES PLEASE
However the bad news is that we didn't get a single ducat from that battle, while our losses piled up considerably.
Actually, hold on, we really didn't get a SINGLE ducat, while we SHOULD have got at least some for the consolation prize upgrade (money for dead guys). I CALL BULLSHIT ON THIS
In any case, this is going to need some budget management (aka selling all the useless potions I never use and kicking out half the tards to the reserves)
And here we go. Paid like 2k to reinforce the turk bowmen, swapped out the wounded, and it seems we're ready for more trouble.
Some level ups
Shield wall on nubians seems a bit silly, but all the other skills are terribad.
Turan-Turan unlocks warcry, which I obviously pick.
Circassians can get Dodge or Arms-Bearer. Picked the latter, you seriously gotta wonder why would a heavy cavalry regiment even need a ranged defence boost...
I also realise that this bauble that Saladin used to have is now completely useless, because most of our heroes have near-maxed resistance at this point. Off to the vendor it goes, although maybe I should have sold this BEFORE selling all the potions and shit...
Sinai unlocks a new province.
Templaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars
Fun fact, Odo de St Amand is actually a historical person, and the 8th grandmaster of the order. Obviously long dead around the Third Crusade, but you know the drill.
OH YOU LITTLE TINY DICK!
Seems we've found ourselves an arch-nemesis!
oh wait one moment
NVM
About as straightforward as a big stick. "Here be enemies. Go kill enemies." Got it.
However, al-Qahira will have to wait, for we have one last non-HQ mission left to mop up.
This one.
Stay tuned for more JIHAD!!!!
Let's see what we can find in this here Sinai. It was a p. bloody fight during the Crusader campaign, so odds are it's going to be the same here.
Our troops start in a familiar ravine.
The enemy are gathered around a guard post, and they are kind of uncool. 2x crusader archers, 1x spearmen, 1x foot knights is all fun and games, but the three regiments of Styrian Infantry are going to be very bad for business.
I let the mameluk lancers scout ahead because the mission map showed trebuchets on the hills.
There are none here in practice tho, so I do a Complex Flanking Manoeuvre (tm) instead and park the riders in nearby bushes.
Arrows, ho
I tell the heavy cavalry to dance around with targets painted on their backs while we shoop the archers.
Rambo spearmen try to bumrush us. I first softened them up with arrows, then with javelins, and now there are grenades flying towards them.
Boom! A single hail of 'nades blows up over 10 of them
The styrians gather up and start advancing.
I soften them up as much as possible before retreating the archers... but they still get two javelin salvos in
I fucking hate those fucking javelins so bad
The grenades also explode the foot knights real good lol
Soon there's just stragglers left.
Hello there, do you have a moment to talk about the prophet Muhammad (PBUH)?
Phase 2 beginneth.
Aww yiss. Check out all the glowing tiles - these are spots in which we can set up fire ballistas.
I put down 5 of them, then drop 4 patches of caltrops. This is going to be a slaughter.
One bad thing though is that two of the ballistas are so far in the back they are not very likely to take part in too much action.
Then battle starts... and it turns out we got cucked
We can take all the ballistas and stick them up our asses when the enemy has multiple longshields at his disposal. Apart from that also some vassals and bowmen and a bunch of foot knights/crusaders.
Oh well.
Bombardment is still good enough to break through their morale at least.
Especially when they have vassals in their midst.
Teehee.
The longshields eventually get too close for comfort, so I pull back the archers and prep the troops.
Turns out, being shot at all the time on the advance is a p. stressful thing to experience
They still put up some resistance though, especially when joined by their friends, but nothing we can't handle.
The weird thing is that the briefing map said there'd be two crusader armies coming against us though, with another one arriving from the southwest. Maybe it was just FAKE NEWS
We can finally get rid of the damned bowmen.
All too easy.
Well, shit, here's the second army after all. 3x light cav, 1x crusader knights, 1x knights templar. And we're already a bit battered, so this may suck.
I take all cavalry + lancers to the flank in anticipation of the crusader assault.
Alhamdulillah, they are kind enough to bunch up and get clobbered by artillery.
BRACE FOR IMPACT
The lancers took the biggest hit to the face (the templars). Good that we have a spare regiment of them in the reserves, still I reinforce them with Asad.
The mameluks are getting clobbered by knights, so I retreat them and order Turan in their place.
Glorious battle!
P. big losses all in all, mostly turks and lancers.
Fucking javelins, I swear
And, of course, no free stuff. I fear we may have depleted all the free stuff events at this point, which is p. bad.
We got this reric at Sinai. YES PLEASE
However the bad news is that we didn't get a single ducat from that battle, while our losses piled up considerably.
Actually, hold on, we really didn't get a SINGLE ducat, while we SHOULD have got at least some for the consolation prize upgrade (money for dead guys). I CALL BULLSHIT ON THIS
In any case, this is going to need some budget management (aka selling all the useless potions I never use and kicking out half the tards to the reserves)
And here we go. Paid like 2k to reinforce the turk bowmen, swapped out the wounded, and it seems we're ready for more trouble.
Some level ups
Shield wall on nubians seems a bit silly, but all the other skills are terribad.
Turan-Turan unlocks warcry, which I obviously pick.
Circassians can get Dodge or Arms-Bearer. Picked the latter, you seriously gotta wonder why would a heavy cavalry regiment even need a ranged defence boost...
I also realise that this bauble that Saladin used to have is now completely useless, because most of our heroes have near-maxed resistance at this point. Off to the vendor it goes, although maybe I should have sold this BEFORE selling all the potions and shit...
Sinai unlocks a new province.
Templaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars
Fun fact, Odo de St Amand is actually a historical person, and the 8th grandmaster of the order. Obviously long dead around the Third Crusade, but you know the drill.
OH YOU LITTLE TINY DICK!
Seems we've found ourselves an arch-nemesis!
oh wait one moment
NVM
About as straightforward as a big stick. "Here be enemies. Go kill enemies." Got it.
However, al-Qahira will have to wait, for we have one last non-HQ mission left to mop up.
This one.
Stay tuned for more JIHAD!!!!
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