Part 14: Turn 12: Invincible Knights and 3-front battles

Update 12: Invincible Knights and 3-front battles

I should note that I didn't realize how funny these Knights would be, so I didn't really take many screenshots until their amazing killing spree was half-over.

Also: This is so disjointed and all over the place because of the way the game works. Sieges happen first, then the Baron moves armies/attacks me, then I set up new siege engines to prepare for next turn, and then I get to move my armies/fix counties. Finally the Countess moves and attacks me with armies. Then sieges start over again.

All the while I'm sending shipments of grain/cows all over the map because every county I take has starving people. The only county I took that was OK was purples last one on the leftish side.





This is on the far right of them map. We start with some swords taking out the Countess' army. 67 swords against 100 peasants.

Immediately after this, she raised 2 more armies of 50 peasants each, and they auto-attacked the Swords with the same results. Total tally for the swords so far: 250.


Siege time.


Just to the left there are 2 more armies that the Baron combined.



But my army of ~100 swords did well enough against a few of them.


Setting up a siege against another of Countess' castles.


And yet another castle.


That's 4 castles under siege, with VERY unhappy armies doing the dirty work in a few instances.




I've got 2 armies (one good one, one with those 93 swordsmen) chillin' out until help can arrive. The Baron is on both sides, looking angry.



In the middle of the map: That northernmost army is my Knights. I'll be taking on more castles soon. Yay. They have already slaughtered over 400 peasants and even 50 archers and 50 macemen.



Sadly I only have 35 of them left. There were only 50 to begin with, so I cant really complain. There was no cover on this map, and I didn't really expect them to live much longer so I didn't micromanage the battle to keep them alive.


After this battle I realized how impressive they were and began using hit and run tactics, and using swamps as cover.

Tally: 500. Immediately after this was another auto-attacking army of 100 peasants. Tally: 600.


On the left side, the Baron is going down sooner or later.



Two of the Countess' castles.




But the third one goes down like a bitch.



The Baron sends another 250 peasants at my swordsmen who are impressive in their own right. Luckily they started in a swamp.




They come out of swamps a few at a time and are easy pickings for the swords.



Now he dodges the swords with his next army and tries to break the siege. I get insanely lucky here and have some swamps to fuck up their day.








His turn ended, the army in the castle must have revolted and opened the doors for me. Yay I got another county.



I add trebs to the remaining sieges that are happening in preparation.


I send an army left to take what it can.


And I succeed.


I am constantly throwing armies like this out into the fields, every 5th turn I make or buy like 150-300 weapons. I could probably end this a while ago, but I don't like starving peasants. Most new counties get double or triple ration for a while to get happiness and healthiness up, so that takes some cash to do.



Remember that castle that I took from Baron? That sneaky fuck ducked behind me and took over one of my counties. This one is now too far away to rule (not touching other counties of mine) so I lost it. A bigger worry is that now he's got an army behind my lines with nothing in between him and my other counties.



Countess tries to break a siege. 150 swords, 150 peasants in my army and only peasants in hers. She fails.




My 67 swordsmen on the top right get attacked, but this time she has more than just peasants.


This has never happened to me before, but she feels bad for me.



They fight to the last man, and do pretty well.



Did you forget about the Earl? I almost did too. That castle isn't complete, so it won't be a siege at least.




Those are all different sieges if you can believe it. Each siege has one army building trebs and flinging rocks, and another standing next to it to absorb the attacks from the Countess trying to break the siege.


The Earl is pretty wealthy or something, he always seems to have Knights.


My boys are happy he is almost done.


He retreated when he had 50 men left, hence the "disbands" instead of "vanquished"


I took over something! I'll never know what until the game lets me look at the map. It's one of countess' so either middle or right.



The earl attacks again. Same result.


This might be the last time you see this.



Countess' bullshit army again. I really didn't take many screenshots of these, they happened about 3-4x per turn.




Knight time!


I missed the opening screen because I thought I was fucked. Then I saw this mud pit.


I lured them in.


And stood on the edge to kill 250 of them.




I lost a couple :sad:



Tally: Just about 1000 so far for the Knights. Almost every turn they hit another army of 50 or 100 peasants TWICE.



Time to hit another castle of the Baron.



Cleaning up the Baron.

You can see by the map that I moved my army on the left south to take the Baron out from behind me. Then I took the county above just for completions sake.



Oh boy oh boy it's coming!


Current Countess shot, you can see my army of Knights where they have been absorbing hits. They are too few to siege, so they are waiting for backup.



One out of 2 ain't bad. No idea which county, but think this is dead center (screenshot right above this). Now those armies can move up and hit the other castles there.



What kind of dickhole sends this message when he's gone?







WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Now: Countess only has most crowns because I have like 50 wood and 50 stone ready to sell, a boatload of wool from counties I've taken, and like 1000 weapons right now. I'm cash poor, but everything-else rich.

I have been rebuilding some castles and demolishing others as I go.




Baron doesn't look happy, but what's he gonna do about it?


Oh my god just give up already.



Goodbye Earl.



Baron tries to break the siege but never even closes with my troops before retreating.


My knights have been slaughtering endlessly. They have 1100 or so kills right now.


The Countess wants to add to that count, make it an even 1200.



Hit, run, hit, run, hit, run. Just don't let them surround you and it's doable.







I decided to take a free county over to complete the map. Only 2 more to go other than the Baron/Countess. Yay, another starving county.


I've been buying and building armies as fast as I can and shoving them northward.


Only 2 more castles after this one!



Countess sends more peasants to the grinder that is the Invincible Knights.


I get lucky with a swamp on the map.




I never saw swamps till about halfway through the game, that was strange. Maybe the left side of the map is wetter? Is a game this old that smart?

And that's it I think. I dont even have maps because I have another 150 images to go through and I'm still not the game yet.

Does anyone care? Less screenshots, more chat? It's almost in cleanup mode at this point.

I've already built the biggest castle I can, I plan on taking all of the counties over before finishing off the Countess/Baron so that I actually own the entire map. Also for completions sake I'll make sure none of my counties have less than 5 stars (that's revolt territory).