Ye Olde Hegemony

[Nexaduro]

Ermmm, I sorta forgot what an Ashrak is...again.

 

 

Sorry about that. Could you PM that to me quickly? I'll be on a break for the next hour, so there's plenty of time. I also need their cost. Basically any ally that knows can PM me as well.

Ashrak = completely unrealistic and if it did exist it would be horribly inefficient. Basically dual wields swords or something stupid like that.

Hm, makes me wonder how Hlaupari would perform...

 

Chain weapons are legitimate, used primarily in Asia, though to get one to double as a grappling hook might make it require greater strength and skill to be used. Hlaupari might've been a possibility, but there would be few people with the required traits an individual would need to become one.

[Retech]

The Great War: Prelude

 

Several years had past since the beginning of hostilities between the Cretians and the Spanish. Both (or just one) sides amassed a considerable number of allies to their cause, and raised hundreds of thousands of men for the war. Many were confident that their troops would steamroll the opposing forces before the end of the year, making it possible for them to spend Christmas Day with their families, caroling through the streets and opening presents. For many, this was not what lay in store for them. Instead, the majority would be lying dead and desecrated in a mass grave, while the rest would be trudging through the mud, to fight another battle.

 

The Great War: Preparation for D-Day

 

[Hide=Mood Setter]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTGrLc3uR10

 

[/hide]

 

As armies from all over Europe began to descend towards Spain, a Cretian fleet was spotted off the coast of Northwestern Spain, two days before D-Day. However, the fleet was simply ignored and remained off the coast for the remainder of the battle.

 

One day before D-Day, riots break out over a contaminated water supply all over Northwestern Spain. The damage is horrendous, and over twenty thousand peasants begin rioting. Unfortunately, the Spanish authorities were completely prepared for the situation and executed all the spies involved. Ten thousand Galician calvary, stationed in North-western Spain engaged the peasants. Despite numerical superiority of the peasants, they were poorly organized and had few armnaments of any kind. The largest group of

peasants, five thousand strong from the former capital of Leon, engaged the two thousand Galician calvary and a force of a thousand merchantile calvary. In the ensuing battle, all of the peasants were slain at the cost of a thousand Galician calvary and four hundred merchantile calvary.

 

Scattered fighting took place in the rest of the Northwestern area, resulting in the death or hiding of the remaining peasants, at the cost of another twenty four hundred Galician calvary. Despite the problems caused for Spain, the Spanish authorities reacted perfectly to almost every blow the spies sent their way, resulting in only moderate infrastructural damage and several thousand casualties.

 

The Great War: D-Day

 

The day of the coalition landing was marked by ill omens. A "one in a hundred year" storm struck the western coast of Spain before moving easternward, hampering efforts by Icelandic Hlaupari to destroy Spanish ships in port. Two thousand were killed before they managed to withdraw while another five hundred washed up on shore and were promptly killed by a prepared Spanish army force. Meanwhile, they partially fuffilled their mission by scouring ports in Northwestern Spain, setting back maritime trade in that region for at least ten years. However, no war ships were found in the area,

 

Meanwhile, a Burgundian transport fleet landed unopposed in Southeastern Spain. Spanish scouts had indicated the presence of Cretian warships, causing the Spanish army to stay away from the coast. The coalition army moved several miles inland, where they camped in a very large wheat field which had just recently been sowed. As they arrived, the Army of Toledo formed up to meet them. It was twice the size of the coalition army and formed mainly of veterans from various conflicts. King Ferdinand was at the head of the army.

 

"Heathens and heretics threaten our glorious Catholic nation of Spain! But God does not stand with these cowards that amass their armies to invade this land - the TRUE Holy Land. The French cower behind the Pyrenees, afraid of us; the Moors sharpen their scimitars thinking we are defenseless; the Cretians threaten our control over the Mediterranean; and the Icelandic heathens ride across our lands and burn our farms - YOUR farms. None of these nations would dare to stand alone against the might of Spain, so they hide behind their numbers. But numbers do not win battles my sons! They are won by brave men, devout of faith and strong in arm - Spanish men. The enemy will come and break themselves against the walls of Spain, and our rivers will run red with the blood of the enemies of God!

 

Deus Vult! God wills it!" ~King Ferdinand the Great

 

100,000 voices cry out in unison: "God wills it!"

 

He quickly got out of the way before the fighting began.

 

The Army of Toledo formed up their pikemen, while the coalition army began firing with their archers. Approximately twenty four thousand elite archer/crossbowmen were deployed on the coalition side. The Army of Toledo responded only with ten thousand archers. The Spanish general immediately ordered his pikemen force to advance slowly with his archers, while he prepared a charge with his infantry. Skirmishing began at this point, when six thousand Spanish heavy horse archers, two thousand Skirmishers, and thirteen thousand Spanish Jinetes rode out in a cloud to meet their eleven thousand horse archers. Due to the sheer number of skirmishers on both sides, the battle stretched out for quite a distance in all directions, as the skirmishers constantly spread themselves out to limit casualties and inflict damage on their enemies. Meanwhile, the pikemen-archer formation of Spain continued moving forward, engaging primarily with the Coalition force. Suddenly the Spanish lines opened up, and tens of thousands of assorted infantry charged forward, led by twelve thousand decently equipped Spanish peasants, who took the brunt of the arrow fire. The coalition lines opened as well and three hundred Burgundian carriage contraptions sprang forth, huge whirring blades moving like a lawnmower in front of them. They were followed by two thousand blood knights and four thousand swordsmen. At this point, the Spanish outnumbered the Coalition ten to one in this confrontation within a confrontation.

 

The Burgundian lawnmowers cut down row after row of peasants. Unfortunately, the cutting area was not perfect and many peasants were left injured behind the carriages, who were quickly slaughtered by the blood knights. Over time, the Burgundian lawnmowers began to strain against the masses of bodies, allowing Spanish peasants to break into them and kill the horses and people who powered them from the inside. The blood knights reached the front of the battle lines and finished off the remaining Spanish peasants, before they encountered roughly five thousand Knights of Santiago. In their blood rage, stemming from the corpses of several thousand on the ground, the Knights of Santiago could not hold off the Blood knights one vs one, even though they were receiving their maximum bonus. However, the sheer number of Knights of Santiago compared to the Blood Knights prevailed and the Blood knights were slaughtered.

 

The remaining twenty three hundred swordsmen withdrew to meet with the swordsmen who were being kept in reserve, and formed a defensive line around the the remaining Coalition archers. The Spanish turned the shells of the Rutracido around and began wheeling them back at the Coalition, using their husks as a mobile shield, though it could only cover a small portion of their army. The Spanish forces slammed into the Coalition forces and fought until every last Coalition soldier was dead. At this time, King Ferdinand appeared on a massive war steed and led the butchering. Ten thousand swordsmen could not stand against the might of the Spanish army.

 

Meanwhile, the skirmishing continued for two days, until almost the entire coalition skirmishing force was either dead or too exhausted to continue. Casualties were extremely high for both sides.

 

Casualties

 

Coalition

 

French

2,500 Pikemen

10,000 Elite Archers

12,200 Swordsmen

8,500 Long Shield Cross Bow Men

10,700 Horse Archers

2,000 Blood Knights

 

Burgandy

300 Rutracido

 

Zeirids

6,000 Arbalestiers

 

 

Spain

4000 Welsh Longbowmen

12,200 Peasants

500 Welsh Swordsmen

3,000 Men at Arms

1,800 Heavy Horse Archers

9,000 Spearmen

1,000 Elite Pikemen

4,000 Pikemen

4,800 Spanish Pikemen

7,000 Swordsmen

6,300 Crossbowmen

7,300 Spanish Jinetes

3,200 Knights of Santiago

1,000 Spanish Knights

2,000 Knights of Saint Peter

 

Result: Spanish Tactical and Strategic Victory, despite greater losses

 

 

Meanwhile, a HRE-Zeirid-French army crossed the border into Morocco with a force of 89,000. However, only 49,000 were trained troops and fourty thousand were merely Tunisian peasants. The peasants seemed less zombified than usual. As they marched towards the Spanish castle, they were confronted on the field by the Army of Leon, roughly seventy thousand strong. The battleground was a dry grassland, the plant life barely clinging to survival from the barren desert. Skirmishers from both sides to confront each other before the main battle, while archers from both sides fired. Suddenly, the Coalition force charged the Spanish, using the forty thousand Tunisians to absorb the archer fire. The Spanish had been thinking the same way and sent twenty thousand halberd-equipped peasants to take the brunt of the enemy force. They proved so equal in every way, that at the very end, a single halberdier faced two Tunisians. The Halberdier decapitated one Tunisian with a single chop of his halberd, while the second Tunisian stepped in and stabbed the Halberdier in the chest. As he stumbled to the floor, a Spanish arrow struck the Tunisian in the eye, causing him to fall as well.

 

The two lines clashed, with the sword-wielding infantry fighting in the front and pikes poking through their lines at their enemies taking up the rear. Meanwhile, the archers on both sides fired over the melee at each other, while a thousand Aquitanian lancers tried to flank the melee. As a response, the Spanish sent their reserve force of knights to block them, causing them to flee. The battle was almost dead even, until the French blood knights manage to break the Spanish center. The superior Spanish skirmishers screened the retreat, while the remainder of the Spanish forces fled back over the strait to safety in Spain.

 

As the Spanish jinetes were highly skillful and were the main reason that the Spanish forces managed to escape. They harassed the coalition troops as they advanced towards Meilla. Despite their obviously poor condition, they were ordered never to retreat, meaning they continued marching until they reached the castle walls.

 

Casualties

 

Spain

20,000 Halberd-Peasants

6000 Spearmen

6000 Archers

4000 Crossbowmen

6000 Swordsmen

500 Pikemen

500 Elite Pikemen

3000 Men at Arms

1000 Knights of Santiago

4000 Spanish Jinetes

1000 Horse Archers

 

Army of Hamburg (HRE)

3000 Pikemen

4000 Sword-Peasants

3000 Crossbowmen

 

France

1200 Blood Knights

1500 Archers

800 Aquitanean Lancers

 

Zeirids

1200 Pikemen

3500 Men at Arms

200 Archers

2500 Arbalastiers

500 Ashraks

 

In accordance with orders, the remaining Arbalastiers and archers began firing at the five thousand Spanish archers on the castle walls. Despite numerical superiority and some decent wooden shields, the Spanish archers still inflicted the majority of the casualties, while Spanish trebuchets inside the wall inflicted heavy casualties on the remaining coalition forces. The exchange lasted for the rest of the day, until the coalition's archers had run out of ammunition, while the Spanish garrison had been reduced to five hundred longbowmen and three thousand swordsmen.

 

The remaining infantry moved forward with a wooden ram, while several wooden ladders were brought up to the walls. The longbowmen pushed these down while firing on the hapless coalition troops. After finally breaching the gate, they were beset by the fresh Spanish swordsmen. As they tried to flee, the remaining Spanish jinetes flung themselves in the path of the fleeing troops and cut many of them down with their shortswords, sacrificing themselves in the process. The swordsmen finished the rest of them off.

 

Casualties:

Coalition

 

Every single remaining soldier except five hundred Arbalastiers, who return to the Zeirid lands

 

Spanish - Castle Garrison

 

4500 Assorted Archers

Remaining Jinetes

1500 Spanish Swordsmen

 

Meanwhile, a huge coalition of six Cretian warships and two large Burgundian ships, along with fifty war cogs and fifty galleys attempted to sail through the Gibraltar straits, with several dozen transport ships with the Italian army onboard. Twenty galleys and a hundred smaller ships from the Byzantine Empire joined in the attack. The Spanish were once again completely prepared and had catapults on the shores, while their entire fleet of 150 war cogs and 150 galleys remained on the west side of the strait, blocking any entry.

 

Suddenly, as the coalition navy reached the extreme outskirts of the strait, the Byzantine soldiers began throwing greek fire and firing their ballistas at the coalition ships. From such a close distance, the accuracy was unerring, causing heavy casualties. Two of the huge Cretian warships were sunk, as well as twenty warcogs and twenty galleys from Italia. Meanwhile, a Byzantine boarding attempt on a Cretian warship failed, as it was simply too small and unequipped to grapple to the decks of such large ships. The remainder of the Byzantine navy was dispatched by the Cretian warships, and the party carried on.

 

Soon they encountered the meat grinder the Spanish had set up. The Cretians dropped off a few Tunisians on the coast, but they were quickly dispatched by the roving guards. The fleet tried to run through the blockade as fast as possible, but the Spanish fired heated iron balls from catapults, which proved extremely effective. Finally, the remaining ships reached the Spanish fleet, where a fierce naval battle took place. The Burgundian ships were the most effective, and used the speed that they had built up from their charge through the strait into a punishing ramming attack, taking down ten ships each until they lost momentum. Then they were struck by iron balls, taking water in and sinking. The Cretian warships proved their work as well and took down twenty ships each, but it didn't make a major dent on the three hundred ship Spanish navy. The coalition navy could not stand the onslaught of the Gibraltan meat grinder, and every single ship sank into the watery bottom of the strait that day.

 

Casualties

 

Every single coalition ship in battle

Italian army on those ships

 

Spain

 

60 War Cogs

80 Galleys

 

Byzantines

 

Every single Byzantine ship in battle

 

Meanwhile, a combined Burgundian-French army landed in South-eastern France unopposed. When their calvary began scouting towards the capital, they met the fifty thousand strong Welsh army. Spies continued their rampage in the Spanish capital, but like those in Northwestern Spain, they were expected and were quickly dispatched before too much could happen. However, the food and water supplies were poisoned, meaning that the city could not survive a prolonged siege.

 

The Burgundian lawnmowers led the charge against the Welsh, who had once again placed their peasants in front. This time, the terrain was a bit marshier, and the lawnmowers ran out of steam after killing eight thousand peasants. Then, twenty five hundred crossbow calvary were sent by the Burgundians. When two thousand Welsh calvary gave chase, they were mowed down by the Burgundian's repeating crossbows. This time, the Spanish used their seven thousand Welsh longbowmen, who greatly outranged the Burgundian force. The coalition initiated a charge, led by 2,000 Aquitanean knights. Meanwhile, the Burgundian calvary and their infantry counterparts skirmished with the Welsh calvary and longbowmen. The Burgundian repeating crossbowmen proved effective against their Welsh counterparts, but after some flanking manuevers by the Welsh calvary, the coalition was on the defensive. Due to the extreme power of the crossbow and the spread out nature of the Welsh calvary, the crossbowmen could only watch as their infantry was flanked.

 

Soon, the infantry was engulfed by the numerous Spanish forces and destroyed. Meanwhile, five hundred shardstorm calvary skirmished with the remaining Welsh calvary until they ran out of ammunition, when they surrendered and were executed.

 

Casualties:

 

Entire coalition army

 

Spanish

 

9000 Welsh Calvary

13000 Peasants

4000 Welsh Longbowmen

7000 Spearmen

4000 Swordsmen

2000 Men at Arms

 

Result: Pyriic Victory for Spain

 

 

The Spanish royal court was proud of the military accomplishments of their King. The Cretian coalition had been repelled or stalled on all fronts.[Hide]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbBb3M7L8-M&feature=related

 

[/hide]

 

The courts or councils of France, Burgundy, Crete, HRE, Iceland, Zeirids, Italia, and Bulgaria were less jolly about the whole ordeal. The Spanish armies had been perfectly placed to repel every single assualt that was sent. Even the Icelandic spies were expected.

 

[Hide]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFlLVIA6ANU

 

[/hide]

 

 

PART ONE. Second part is much shorter, but I don't want this to suddenly disappear. Questions and concerns welcome. I won't read them until I finish this second part.

[Nero]

 

Kneel before your new God, Europe.

 

(Told you you should have accepted the terms when you could)

[Retech]

Kievan-Byzantine Invasion of Bulgaria

 

The Byzantine attacking force, twenty thousand strong, crashed into Bulgaria, alerting the Bulgarian border guard. As soon as the Bulgarian army began to set out to meet them, the super massive Kievan armies, totalling a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers began marching into Bulgaria from the north. The Bulgarian general could do nothing else but hole his entire army in the capital city, fortifying it.

 

Having received no information as to how to progress, the allied forces settled down in a siege, waiting for orders.

 

Byzantine Invasion of Italia

 

An identical Byzantine attacking force invaded Italia, meeting a small border guard of one thousand calvary. They had little chance to react before four thousand Byzantine cataphracts overwhelmed them, only losing two hundred cataphracts. The Byzantine army moved to the Italian capital and began a siege. The other half of the Italian army, based in Port Genoa, quickly marched to strike the Byzantines from the rear. The forces of Italia were attacked by four thousand horse archers. They were in quite the dillemma. If they moved from a static position, the horse archers could attack at will without fear from the Italian archers. However, they needed to relieve the siege on Italia.

 

The decision was to slowly move towards the capital, while stopping suddenly to fire volleys at the horse archers. The strategy had one major flaw: the soldiers became very tired. In the end, the Italian army camped several miles out of the capital city, resting and awaiting further orders.

 

Casualties:

1200 Byzantine Horse Archers

2500 Italia Archers

 

 

Oh yes, I forgot something in the previous report.

 

The Byzantine army attacking from the French-Spanish border is "mercilessly slaughtered" until they reach the Spanish castles and don Spanish uniforms.

 

----

 

Summary for people who aren't involved in the war:

Massive combined invasions by the coalition are stopped by a Spanish army at each landing. One wonders how they received such accurate knowledge

Byzantine Empire invades Italia and Bulgaria, sieging the capital cities

 

----

 

I expect a whole lot of complaints about specifics. It is extremely unlikely that anything would've changed the outcome, but there are some things I can tweak around. This took quite a few hours, so I am not redoing an entire section. At most, I might tweak casualty figures.

 

Also keep in mind that I had over twenty PM posts to look at, mostly regarding stuff other than the conflict. If I missed something, then it was expected. That is sorta the risk of having a coalition where everyone sends their own plans.

[Nero]

The Byzantine army attacking from the French-Spanish border is "mercilessly slaughtered" until they reach the Spanish castles and don Spanish uniforms.

And my garrison in Sardinia takes off their Byzantine uniforms and puts back on their Spanish ones.

[Icuownage]

Yeah I quit too, though Dusty probably wont let me live it down so I guess is goodbye.

 

Wasn't surprised we were spied on, we had EVERYONE in that PM.

[Retech]

Oh, I almost forgot. Spain received considerable infrastructure and economy penalties from the conflict. Well, it's not huge, but it has an impact. I will edit that into the first post.

 

----

 

Is it just me or did my ridiculously huge post cause the Tip.it staff to turn up. :mellow:

[Nero]

Is it just me or did my ridiculously huge post cause the Tip.it staff to turn up. :mellow:

I posted it in the chat to gloat hehe

Yeah I quit too, though Dusty probably wont let me live it down so I guess is goodbye.

 

Wasn't surprised we were spied on, we had EVERYONE in that PM.

Oh quit being so bloody melodramatic.

[Retech]

Wait, what chat? Like the public chat, where all the Tip.it people were?

 

Did they kick you for spamming?

[Icuownage]

???? I wasn't bein melodramatic :S? I'm not even upset by this..

[Nero]

Whoops nevermind

 

???? I wasn't bein melodramatic :S? I'm not even upset by this..

Then you're being overly dramatic. Whatever.

 

--

 

The terms (if I choose to offer them rather than just pummeling you buffoons into dust) will be harsh, but they won't be something that leaves everyone crippled for eternity.

[Retech]

I tried to make it as clear as possible with the casualties, so that when (if) you do your next battle report, you can factor the casualties into your army figures.

 

Also Dusty, 0.9 Economy and 0.6 infrastructure. There are three more years until these factor in, so you might want to fix those before your IEG goes back to 10 mil.

 

-----

 

And I am going to have a nap now.

[Earth]

wait, what message? never knew there was one. heh. anyways, i guess i can still focus on attacking england.

[Icuownage]

Yeah, it was a fun war though :P.

 

Dusty if you want PM some terms.

[Nexaduro]

Wow, that really went badly.

 

Soo, Retech, you didn't give me my report...

[Nero]

Yeah, it was a fun war though :P.

 

Dusty if you want PM some terms.

Have to confer with Doom and Dungeonal first.

 

--

 

Oh and Retech what happened with Bruges' invasion of Northern France?

 

Soo, Retech, you didn't give me my report...

I killed all your spies :shades:

[Icuownage]

Well if Doom wasn't a traitor then we'd probably win considering how it went. Bad Doom!

[Nexaduro]

Really? The Spanish ones? That's not what I meant.

 

Anyways, to hell with being the good guy. Retech, I'll be cancelling that invasion I had planned. All troops are withdrawn. How many Flytja do I have left?

[Retech]

Actually in my calculations, all the battles were not complete losses for the coalition. Infact, if I were using the plans that Dusty sent before he received the plans, Spain probaly would've lost. :thumbup:

 

Oh yes, about Bruges. The HRE was trying to get Antwerp to fight against Bruges, so now Antwerp likes the HRE less. Bruges had to keep troops back to defend incase of HRE attack.

 

----

 

I believe it states that in the first few paragraphs of the report.

[Seraphi]

You guys didn't defend the flanks :sad:

 

If we weren't spied on, we probably would have won... Maybe.

 

Still, my Rutracido proved fairly effective, and so did the Derellum dragonater cannon things.

[Nero]

I fail to see how such a device would work using medieval technology.

[Retech]

The Rutracido were probaly the most effective thing in the attack. Especially since Dusty had the strategy to put the peasants in front. :P

 

 

Oh, here are the stats for the first part of the report, when copy and pasted into word with twelve point font.

 

Pages: 8

Words: 2664

Characters: 13,969

Characters with spaces 16,693

Lines: 333

 

That is essay length people!

[Seraphi]

Nice job Retech, you did great.

 

And yeah Dusty, I figured you'd go with the "BURY THEM WITH OUR CORPSES" footslogger style defense, and in all honesty, the Rutracido was more or less designed specifically with you in mind, to counter that :P

 

And the dragonater has a very viable technique behind it. It's so very simple, yet nobody thought of it.

[Earth]

my caty just jumped on ym head and tried to kill me. i dont thinlk im having a good day.

[Nexaduro]

*sigh*

 

Inviting Doom was one of the most obvious mistakes you guys made. Majour world power, expanding at every chance, potential to benefit from betraying the smaller nations...

 

Sooo I'm not fighting for any player but myself from now on, unless you pay me. Anyone want to take on a contract? :twisted:

 

Also, I contact Bruges and Antwerp. I suggest an alliance, offering those two random islands between Iceland and Europe. I also ask if they need some extra troops for conquests, offering the assistance of my soldiers.