In my Grand Campaign in ''Medieval II'', I was playing as Scotland. We managed to take an island in the Mediterranian, which was apparently on Sicily's "to conquer" list - a few turns after taking it and moving my army out to continue my campaign on Milan, they sent about two thousand troops, including several units each of Norman Knights and Muslim Archers. My defense force consisted of two full-strength units of Heavy Pike militia, one half-strength Pike Militia, one nearly-full strength unit of Highland Nobles, two units of Spear Militia, one half-strength unit of Highlanders, and a pair of catapaults. Total troop strength, maybe eight hundred men. I figured we were screwed, so I decided to make the victory as costly as possible. The Pikes set up on either side of the main gate and braces, with the Highland Nobles and one unit of spear militia screening the catapaults, which were set up to have a perfect shot at the main gates. Last unit of spears were set up on the battlements to keep the towers manned. As the ladders approached, I had the Highlanders charge out the gate and fight the ladder carrying troops, taking advantage of that bug that makes the siege troops drop their gear and forget about it. The Highlanders were massacred (unsupported, unarmored light infantry against heavy infantry = slaughter) but they eliminated the ladders. The castle's towers set the enemy siege tower on fire, and that solved that issue. The surviving Highlanders retreated into the castle, and the gates closed behind them right as the Sicilians' ram reached the gates. Cue tense waiting while the ram smashed the gates down....and then they crashed open. The Sicilians flooded inside, and the Pikemen met them, supported by flaming shots from the catapault. Several long minutes passed, and I committed the Nobles and the spear militia to holding the line. Catapault shots flew into the heart of the enemy clustered under the gate, killing scores at a time. Nonetheless, the Sicilians kept pouring in, pushing us back....and then they suddenly broke. The too-stubborn defenses of the Scottish combined with the massive pummeling they were getting from the catapaults overcame their morale. Almost half the army broke at once and began to retreat, and within a few minutes the only units still fighting were a few Normans and the archers still outside the gates who were getting whittled down by the towers' arrows. A couple of minutes later, I sent the remaining troops out of the castle to make sure the enemy was fully routed, and they ran them off the map. After action report: Sicilians: 2200 men. Scots: 800. Sicilians killed: 1500. Scots killed: 350 or so. '''Heroic Victory.'''

In Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion, I was playing as the Franks. One of my cities was besieged by a Vandal horde of '''five full armies'''. The city itself was defended by just one army, which had only six units: two units of pikemen, two archers, a general and a cavalry unit. I had also taken the city only recently, so a part of the wall had broken down. I sally out, trying to rescue what I could rescue and they attack me with their five armies - but one-by-one, as their reinforcements were delayed - so I place my pikemen in the part of the wall that had broken down, with the archers on the walls next to them and the general and the cavalry behind them. The result? I had slaughtered four of the five armies completely, but by the time the fifth army arrived, my men were exhausted and started routing, after which the battle was lost. However, the last enemy army was so worn out that, when I invaded the city with another army, I had retaken it without much casualties. That's a battle I'm still quite proud of.

The scene: a barren, rocky, foggy wasteland somewhere in Russia, during the Mongol invasion. My support army - trebuchets, archers, and typically lackluster Russian infantry - gets caught by a Mongol army. I don't even have a named general, but I'm thinking I might as well do what damage I can, since it's not like I can run or anything. I deploy in the corner, hoping to thin their ranks with my ranged fire even though it's so foggy and windy the odds of me hitting anything are astronomical. I've written it off as a loss. Instead, the first shot fired by a trebuchet arcs a third across the map and ''pulverizes the enemy general''. That throws the whole Mongol army into confusion, and they mill about and redeploy for a few moments, giving me precious time to keep up the fire. After a grueling half hour, most of the Russians are dead, but the Mongols are shattered.

For my Venice Grand Campaign for Medieval II, I very quickly learned that it was nearly impossible to beat the Mongols tactically on the battlefield map; the Mongol troops are all high-end veterans with good armor and weapons, with full-size armies that are led by high-dread/high-command generals, and are close enough to provide reinforcements to one another - rendering it virtually impossible for a single army stack of my own to defeat a Mongol army. So instead, I realized I had to take a step back and turn to the series' title: ''Total'' War. Instead of fighting the Mongols tactically, I battled them ''strategically'' - building full-size army stacks led by lowly captains and flinging them at the Mongol armies, taking advantage to the massive amount of money I had thanks to good rulership of my vast empire and the extra income I was getting from sacking cities in the Iberian Peninsula, Norway, and the British Isles. My armies intercepted the Mongols while they were still far to the East, in Russian and Polish territory, and we kept battering them with wave after wave of militia troops, spearmen, and crossbows - cheap, easily replaceable and quite disposable infantry. Nearly every battle was, technically, a defeat - but as the Mongols controlled no cities, they couldn't replace their losses, while Venice ''could'', and could do so easily with the sheer amount of resources available. Every loss on our side cost use about a thousand men, but it cost the Mongols close to the same amount. The rest of the money was spent on several massive full-size reserve armies of cavalry, built out of the very best cavalry my empire could assemble, including mercenary units. We wore them down to maybe six full-size army stacks with only three living generals. Eventually, the Mongols managed to grab a Russian city, at which point I sprang the masterstroke of my plan: I assassinated the current Pope, established my own Venetian Pope, and had him commission a Crusade against said city. Within three turns, six full-size Crusade armies, consisting almost exclusively of those cavalry armies I mentioned before, slammed into the weakened Mongols and ''broke them'', besieging their city, killing their Khan, and sending them scattering across Russian lands. Thus, the Mongol Horde was turned back without setting a foot in Venetian lands, using ''strategic'' warfare over mere ''tactical'' combat. It took nearly forty turns of constant combat on the fringes of my Empire, but we ''crushed'' the Mongols utterly.

That's what this (not the same troper as above)troper loves about this series. This is ''not'' a game about spammming build orders. This is a game about strategy, tactics, planning and manipulation.

On my first Grand Campaign in Medieval II, I was playing as the Holy Roman empire. By the time I quit, I had almost all of the map in my control. Everything to the Ural Mountains and close to Egypt's western border was black and gold.

This Troper accidentally recreated the battle of Agincourt while playing as England in the the first Medieval Total War. He had one heavy knight unit, one light horse unit, two billman units, two longbowman units, and two cannons, all of them highly experienced. The French had 100,000 mixed troops. It was a slaughter. He had also saved right before the battle and often went back and replayed the battle when stressed or bored.

In a Grand Campaign as the Danes in Medieval 2 my faction leader was ambushed by a small Holy Roman Empire army consisting of three ballista units and a General unit. I had been setting up watchtowers to prepare for an invasion but I didn't think the Germans got an invasion force mobilized that fast, and I was low on cash so I didn't recruit mercenaries as ambush protection. During the battle, the German general repeatedly charged with his bodyguard while my faction leader was preoccupied with the Ballista crewmen, and near the end only my faction leader and ten German knights were left alive. My faction leader, who is heavily wounded, in his mid-forties and hasn't actually fought in a battle for over a decade in-game, kills them all. Naturally after that the survivors were attacked by another army of a thousand Germans, but my faction leader survived that battle as well after the eleven survivors took out around sixty German soldiers.

This troper was playing as the Prussians in Empire Total War (Yes, i just said that, let the FanDumb rage against me for liking the so called "Black Sheep" of the series), and laid siege to Warsaw Poland. Now, The city was (Understandably)Heavily Guarded, and my army would suffer heavy losses if they simply assaulted. So i split my army into two on the campaign map, so that one army was attacking from the north, consisting of mostly calvary and some line infantry, and one Army attacking from the south, Consisting of cannon, our General, and A Huge quantity of line infantry. I had the Artilery in the south create holes in their Fort's wall while the Northern Army Marched into the battlemap. Then, after a hole had been created, I sent the entirety of the southern army into the breach, which tied up the majority of their forces in fighting to keep us out. By now, the Reinforcing Northen Army had marched in completely. Then I sprung the trap: With so many of their forces fighting to keep the southern army out, only a few units of Armed Citizens were left to guard the northern gates. I had the North Army's Line Infantry Storm the wall, and they took over the Gatehouse very Quickly. I then Sent the rest of the Northern Army (Which remember, were mostly Calvary) to charge through the gate and attack the Polish Attacking the southern army from the rear, which they were totally unprepared for. The charge liquidized the pole's and surrounded them, and most were routing or dead before long. Result? '''HEROIC VICTORY'''.

What? Why do people not like the Prussians?

No The Prussians are Fine, It's Empire Total War People Don't seem to like. And Since the game came out Half Finished due to ExecutiveMeddling,I Guess they have every right to.

Ah, I thought that when you were talking about 'the black sheep of the series' you were referring to the Prussians and was confused. And I'm with you there, because I'd say Empire is possibly my favorite in the series. I've just found that playing a Total War game is always about finding ways to work around the dodgy AI, so, especially now with patches and mods, there's nothing that really bothers me too much about it.

I would like to post this in memory of General Sergei Kamensky. General of the Army of Western Europe and of the Russian Republic. Basically, I've had Kamensky since I engineered the revolution and turning Russia into a republic to make an interesting game. I proceeded to steamroll through the Ottoman Empire, and after that is the point I appointed Kamensky to the post of a new army. He managed to take Vienna from the Austrians and drive them completely into Italy, where they continued to be a nuisance in further liberating the area. Meanwhile, I sent Kamensky pretty much everywhere in Europe, Berlin, Spain, Denmark, everywhere except Paris and Great Britain. He became a 9-star general and one of his ancillaries gained was the Order of the Saint Andrew the First Called. He was the only General to have that distinction ever in that campaign. After starting another Italian Campaign, Kamensky's depleted army made a beeline for a lightly garrisoned Naples, where they were ambushed. Kamensky died leading a charge that day, and his army had to be merged with another one nearby. I could never fully replace the loss of Kamensky, even with the inherently immortal Kutusov. If anything, Kamensky dying was quite possibly the closest I ever got to really thinking that war is hell, at least in Total War.

This troper recalls playing as the Almohads (Moors) in ''Medieval I'', and having to fight off a Mongol invasion from the east. This culminated in a truly epic, Thermopylae-like battle in I think Crimea, where about 100 of my soldiers managed to hold off an army of ''over two thousand Mongols'' for nearly the entire span of the fucking battle. I lost in the end, but considering that I'd basically fought to the last man, and that they had only ''five or six'' men left out of the original 2,000 or so, I still felt pretty good about it. The lesson here; bridges are really good places for fighting defensively.

This troper has just recently bought Medieval 2 total war, and learnt the hard way about the game's ArtificialStupidity when it comes to Pathfinding. In an Particularly important battle, he had his Calvary set up in a perfect Flanking formation, And Foot soldiers and Archers bogging the enemy down. Then he ordered the calvary to strike from the rear. They just sat there doing nothing. The Enemy was beginning to recover from the shock of the initial infantry charge. He Once Again gave the order. They Did Nothing. His whole army began to break. He Gave The order with increasing desperation. '''NOTHING.''' Finally, '''AFTER''' His general died, His entire army routed, and generally the enemy could do what they wanted, only '''THEN''' Did His calvary charge...into Spearmen ready and waiting for them. They got Butchered. The battle ended with a humiliating defeat, all survivors in ransom, and one very annoyed troper. Has this happened to anyone else?

This troper was playing the Byzantine Empire in Stainless Steel and clashed with the Venetians over Ragusa. His army, about half spearmen and half Byzantine cavalry (horse archers/light cavalry), managed to pull off a beautiful "hammer and anvil" manoeuvre, routing the enemy and taking about 500 prisoners, out of a 900 strong force. Then he ransomed them back to the Venetians...where they promptly appeared in Ragusa. He went on to fight for the city, now reinforced, and sent unit after unit at the epic defence that the Venetians had set up around the town. Gradually, they were pushed back, although at great cost. The battle ended with repeated charges by his light cavalry against a defiant unit of spearmen, the rest of his army watching on, completely exhausted from the fourty-five minute ordeal they had just undergone. End result was Ragusa fell, but about 70% of his army was lost. Oh, and the Venetians he had ransomed were all killed anyway and reinforcing cost more than the ransom. Moral of the story: don't ransom back a mass of troops who will appear in the settlement you're about to siege.

This troper recalls one particular instance in the Rome Total War Grand Campaign. I was playing as the Scipii and we were knee deep in the Civil War, my faction leader was leading the assault on Italy, while one of our minor family members attacked the Julii in Gaul from our strongholds in Spain while my faction heir landed with a full stack at Corinth to deal with the Brutii. After slogging his way through Greece with disturbing ease he began working his way up through Macedon. Now those of you who have played the game know that the Balkans are covered in mountains with only a few paths connecting the various cities together, making it a nightmare to invade because its fairly easy to block any given way in or out of an area with a massive army or two. So you can imagine my shock when my army came to rest outside Bylazora only to find the area occupied by no less than EIGHT BRUTII ARMIES several of them full stacks and all but three led by family members, sometimes even more than one. The next round was spent watching all eight of them, usually in turn but once or twice in pairs rain down on my one little army, when the dust settled half the House of Brutii was dead on the field, eight armies had been decimated to the point where they just collapsed and my little army was badly mauled BUT STILL STANDING. To add insult to injury that same army went on to take Bylazora.

In Rome: Total War's grand campaign, this troper was able to get a working Marian army before either the Brutii and Scipii (obviously, I was the Julii). The year is 180 BC. I have gone through painstaking efforts to isolate these two factions in Italy, and I have money flowing in from Gaul, Spain, Greece, the Balkans, western Africa, and the northern Levant. My navy had full control over the Western Mediterranean. The Roman Senate called for the suicide of my faction leader, who led the conquest of Carthage, Spain, and Gaul, and I refused. I had an army of Praetorian cohorts, archer auxilia, and praetorian cavalry, in Byzantium, but I knew that the other Roman factions would try to hit Arretium and Ariminium. So I gathered a group of Praetorian Cohorts, twelve in number but all of them raw recruits, and an onager crew, put the faction heir, Julianus Victor, in command, and prepared to assault Rome directly from Arretium. My navy was blockading every Italian port outside my own. I figured my far advanced units would plow through the pre-Marian hordes of the Senate. I reached the city walls and was preparing siege works. Suddenly, an army of the Senate attacked me, deploying from a fortress near the dock. A nearby Brutii army also joined in. I was surrounded. The battle took place near a forest outside Rome. The Brutii and Senate reinforcements were marching from the south, the garrisons of Rome from the west. They far outnumbered me. I had roughly 1000 men. Their numbers were close to 3500. I occupied a small hill to the southeast, where my onagers were set up. Three of my cohorts were diverted to deal with the Rome garrison, to prevent them from enveloping me. My onagers started pelting the enemy field armies, but they began splitting off. I decided to charge all but one cohort into the enemy armies. They all converged on this band and were merciless cut down, but not without doing serious damage to my army. In the end, only a single cohort still stood after the battle, but the field armies were decimated. I quickly repositioned my remaining cohort to the other front, where three of my cohorts were fighting against 700 men guarding the city. The battle had reduced them to about 100 men, while two enemy triarii regiments remained. I charged, my general leading the way. The armies were bled down, but I won. In the end, Julianus Julius had a gold chevron, the one remaining cohort had two silver chevrons, and we took the city. The best part was the Brutii faction leader getting thrown off his horse by an onager shot. Two turns later, my reinforcements from the east landed near Messana and prevented a Scipii attack. Within the next three turns, I had control of all Sicily, Rome, and Croton.

In Napoleon Total War, I was Playing through the Europe Campaign for France. The First Combatant, The Austrian Army, With Intensely Professional, Battle Hardened Soldiers in it's rank and File, Marched on, The Victor of Countless Battles Throughout Europe, Comprised of the best that the Grand Descendants of The Holy Roman Empire had to Offer. Opposing Them? The Upstart Napoleon Bonaparte, His Men Outnumbered by Two Thirds. Now, As we stood Little to no Chance in an Open Fight, We used somewhat less than conventional Tactics (We Ambushed Them.) From that Point, Victory was Ours. Our Infantrymen Shot the Panicking Austrians, as they fumbled around desperately, Our Calvary wiped their General from this Existence, and our Cannon Rained Death from the skies. The last Austrian Survivors of our Cunning Plan ran like bewildered children. The Glorious Grande Armée lost less than 150 men.

In Empire's Grand Campaign, I Played as the Ottoman Empire, took over Austria, Poland, Russia, Persia, Northern India, North America, and Iceland; played as The Dutch and took over Prussia, France, India, The Americas, Spain, Italy, and Iceland; and played as the Maratha Confederacy and took over all of India, The Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Scotland, and Iceland. I like taking over Iceland in this game.

This troper, playing as Denmark, is currently at war with the Holy Roman Empire. My biggest success? The scene: A foggy hillside, my army of 611 on top, the German army of 600 on the bottom. I have five groups of archers, the general, two dismounted knight units, and two units of spearmen. RainOfArrows was in full effect. They never got close, and a lucky shot killed their general. Soon after they broke and ran, and I finally had my army break ranks to chase them down. The ending result? No casualties for me...but only 45 enemy soldiers got away. This has been only the latest in a line of curb stomps during my war with them. Right now I'm not allowed to attack them because of a decree from the pope, but I plan to resume the offensive after the mission is over.

A classic example of ArtificialStupidity: this troper was playing as Norway in the Britannia campaign in Medieval 2:Total War Kingdoms. He had captured a fort in Ireland, after years of them blockading his ports. While the main force was elsewhere, the small garrison of 220 was besieged by 706 Irishmen, with three units of bombards. While a few units walked around the side with ladders and a siege tower, the rest lined up behind the ram to attack the gate. At the same time, the three bombards were also trying to open the gate. This troper won the battle, thanks in part that the AI kept firing artillery into its own units.

I was playing with my brother in Rome: Total War, it was a siege, we were defending (He used the Greek Cities, I used Germania) vs Rome (Hooray for historical inaccuracy), basically, Germania sucked or at least I don't know how to use it, but my brother had the Spartans, he put one squad of them in the gate, nothing, literally, NOTHING, passed through, at the end of the attack, only two of those Spartans came out alive, those were though. (Meanwhile, I leaded a charge of basic Germanic infantry towards cavalry because I was bored, '''horses flied'''

Games like TotalWar lend themselves to fun alternate histories, but there was a particularly memorable one for this troper in Medieval I. I was playing as the Almohads, and while looking for rebels to bribe, I noted that the rebel leader of Valencia was none other than ElCid. I successfully bribed him. In this AlternateHistory, El Cid converted to Islam, became ''Amir'' Cid, and died leading a jihad against Egypt. He was one of my best generals, and almost certainly went down in history as an Almohad national hero.

My first Crowning Moment of Awesome in ''Napoleon'' came when I learned that a reasonably fast ship (preferably a 38-gun Frigate, or later a 38-gun Steam Ship) can take on pretty much anything. And I do mean ''anything'' - I subsequently took on England's entire 20-ship fleet (lead by two 122-gun SoLs and a handful of other large vessels) with just the one Frigate. Unfortunately this really breaks the balance of all Naval combat - you can make ridiculous amounts of money capturing enemy shipping, not to mention being able to maintain absolute naval superiority (and hence naval trade) across the entire map with just a handful of relatively cheap ships. This ''sort of'' ends when the enemy begins training Bomb Ketches and Rocket Ships, though by that point you're probably swimming in money already.

I was playing the Stainless Steel mod for Medieval II, as the Moorish Caliphate. While I was at war with Portugal, all of a sudden Castile (one of the two "Spainish" factions, based around Leon and Toledo with an emphasis on cavalry and javelinmen) came out of nowhere and laid siege to one of my smaller towns with a full stack of over two thousand men. Fortunately, in a bit of tactical insight I'd stationed some extra professional infantry there in case of attack (ironically, they were there to defend against an attack by Aragon, the other "Spanish" faction), mostly consisting of Arab infantry (heavily-armored spearmen) and Urban Militia (heavy militia swordsmen). I also had crossbow and spear militia, with some Desert Cavalry as backup. The Urban Militia and crossbows manned the walls while the Arab Infantry and spears covered the gate. The Castilians advanced into crossbow fire, their seige tower reaching the walls. The spearmen they sent up met the Urban Militia and were cut down, while their siege tower brought enemy Sword Militia onto the walls further down, resulting in a bloody struggle on the walls between formations of sword and shield. The gate crashed down thanks to the enemy ram, and the majority of enemy infantry stormed through, met by the spearmen. The Castilians pushed through into the courtyard, driving my numerically inferior spearmen back and outward, until there was a wide, thin ring of spearmen around the Castilian invaders....up until the Castilians moved all the way inside the gate, and my spearmen encircled them, blocking the gate and making it impossible for the Castilians to flee. In other words, we encircled and somehow outnumbered a numerically superior enemy. Then, in a stroke of pure luck, one of my spearmen managed to strike down the Castilian general, and at the same time the swordsmen on the walls broke and fled, freeing up the Urban Milita to come down and assist the main forces. The Castilians, now leaderless, somehow surrounded by numerically inferior opponents, and facing enemy reinforcements, broke ranks and tried to flee - but the men holding the gate stopped most of them, forcing half the Castilian army into a final bloody stand. When the last remaining enemy soldier was struck down, only about a hundred Castilians had managed to escape the battle alive, fleeing for the hills in panic. Immediately afterward, a Castilian diplomat showed up and sued for peace. Showed ''those'' infidels the power of Islam!

I was playing the Netherlands in Empire and was at war with Spain. One of my atlantic fleets was suddenly attacked by a superior Spanish armada commanded by one of their finest admirals. Seeing no chance of actually winning this battle, i decided to at least kill the admiral. My flagship was ordered to board the enemy flagship while the rest of the ships would distract the Spanish armada. The boarding maneuver was successful but my flagship was heavily damaged in the process and the other ships were sunk or routed one by one. As the battle raged on my flagship was still under heavy fire and finally sunk while the enemy flagship managed to break loose. But the fighting on board the Spanish ship wasn't over. A small group of sailors and marines were still fighting for their lives but the enemy admiral was still alive. I tried to buy them some time with the small rest of my fleet but they weren't going to hold on much longer. Finally, the small band of survivors aboard the enemy vessel took down the admiral before the scattered remains of my fleet routed and the battle was lost. Still an awesome moment for the crew who accomplished their task even while their ship sank and ships all around them were fleeing.

This troper has many different save files from Empire in which the faction has taken over the entire world as a result of almost ten days of playing in three months.

This troper (Unown) was playing Medieval II´s multi-player in a 3 way battle. The map was Spanish Fields. I was the Scotts, with my opponents Moors and some central European faction.

As the battle opened the third player cowered from the field when he saw the might of the Moorish Missile cavalry, his men left the field before the Muslims could even pluck a single bow. With one man gone in less than 2 shakes of a lamb´s tail it did not guarantee a quick battle - The brave Scottsmen and the brave Mormons fought bitterly for over an hour in a long series of charges and counter-charges, of which I lost my cavalry early, then he lost his Horse-Archers to my highlanders.

In the end, it came down to two units of ballistae between us. He was out numbered 13:9, but he had the higher ground. For 40 seconds we traded shots until he landed a shot which destroyed one of my unit´s two ballistae. Hastefully, realising that my men lacked the fire-power that my opponent had and that my men couldn't hit a minister with a shoe, I order my ballistae crew into a desperate up-hill charge which narrowly wins. To this day this remains my only victory online, but it was epic and hard-fought. To this day I still find it amazing that the battle ended with bastillae crew in fisty-cups. Just shows you how crap I am.