The world shook with The Pope's proclamation, and Istvan knew what had to be done. He would prepare his forces, and he would march for Antioch, not even the king could stop him. When word arrived from the king that he wanted Istvan to go anyhow, Istvan was thrilled and immediately began making his way towards Antioch.
Later outside of ZagrebKing Laszlo laughed at the absurdity of it, a force of 37 attacking his well-trained army of 462. He thought about just sending his Magyar Cavalry to clean up the pathetic force of a battered spear militia and equally battered unit of peasant archers, but ultimately decided he should bring his full force against this small force so he could resume the siege of Zagreb. The archers rained fire down upon the enemy and the Magyar Cavalry and Crossbow Militia soon had them running away long before they were a threat to any members of his army. Suddenly one of the scouts rushed up to King Laszlo. "My king, they're just over that hill, they're almost here!" said the scout.
"What of their forces?"
"3 fully formed units of mailed knights backed up by the Spear Militia's of Venice and Councillor Benasuto himself."
"Men, TURN AROUND! Face the Hill, they will be here soon." yelled King Laszlo. His forces arrived at their new locations just as the archers and Spear Militia appeared over the hill and began to charge down. The Magyar Cavalry and Crossbow Militia's proved their worth against those inferior forces, but it wasn't long before the Mailed Knights made themselves known. With Croat Axmen and Spear Militia of his own occupying 2 of the units King Laszlo turn his attention to the enemy general. Soon it became clear he was going to enter the fray against the infantry, but King Laszlo quickly rode around behind him and charged him from behind, leaving a great many of the bodyguards and Mailed Knights dead. Unfortunately, the one unit of unoccupied knights was fighting the Crossbowmen, but there were bigger things to be dealt with right now. If the Knights smashed the infantry line the battle would be lost even if he had all the crossbowmen in the world at his disposal.
Ultimately one of the Spearmen managed to bring down Councillor Benasuto and the other units broke and ran away, but the battle was not without it's costs. More than half of his forces lay dead, but they had won, and the city of Zagreb now had no defenders. It was a victory, and one that Hungary desperately needed to fill it's coffers. While not normally in his nature, King Laszlo ordered the city to be pillaged and stripped of it's worldly wealth and the hostages taken in the last battle to be ransomed back to Venice. When Venice refused the ransom, the prisoners were, unfortunately in Laszlo's mind, executed. Finally Hungary had the the money necessary to fund an army to go on the Crusade to Antioch, more could not be asked for, but it would certainly be received the following year.
A year later, in Venice
((I forgot to take a pic of the Battle Deployment Screen, but the numbers were 4:5 in their favor.))
The coming battle looked grim for the Hungarians. Across the bridge, 3 units of Spear Militia were marching for them, from behind the defenders of the city of Venice including Crossbowmen and a general marched for them. Stuck between these two armies, there was only one thing to do. Rouse the men and if their last stand was to take place outside of the gates of Venice, make sure it would be a glorious last stand that all would remember. Rousing his men, he had his archers at the bridge with the Missile Cavalry flanking them. Behind them were the Slav Levies, ready to rush to the front if the Spear Militias got too close, and there at the end sat Elek overlooking the Bridge. The first assault would come from the bridge, but the significant amount of fire from the Missile Cavalry and the Archers wore the units down substatially. Elek, quickly decided only one unit of Slav Levies would be required to hold the bridge while the archers did their work and then quickly turned around to face the other foe that was coming from behind. Made up of yet more Spear Militias and some Pavaise Crossbowmen with a general in support, they would be a far tougher opponent, if only the Hungarians had more archers this wouldn't be nearly as bad.
Ultimately, Elek decided on a risky gambit. He sent the three Slav Levies forward to confront the enemy spear men and General while he rode for the Crossbow men position. If he could remove the Crossbowmen from the battlefield, his Slav Levies might just have a chance to even the battlefield. Thankfully it worked and the enemy general was so involved with the Slav Levies he failed to notice Elek approaching his own Crossbowmen. In the end, the archers were able to force the spear militia on the bridge to retreat and Elek and the Slav Levies were able to rout and kill the enemy general. God had been kind to Hungary this day, that was certain.
Though the enemy had the advantage, Elek was victorious. His men had held fast, and he had revealed himself as a good commander. Nothing more could be asked for, the City of Venice belonged to Hungary, the war against Venice was nearly over now that they no longer held their namesake city.
((Do you guys think these .jpgs look any better than the .gifs? I'm not convinced either way. Also I'm far too tired to even play out the next turn tonight so I'll have to do it tomorrow. Sorry.))
((That turn was a bit heavy on the action, if you have any questions about what happened, just ask them and I'll tell you what I remember.))
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Topic: Let's Play Medieval 2: Total War, Turns 33-36, Enemies Everywhere (Read 12750 times)