Cherokee Warbands Storm the French Fort (Online Battle #175)

Hey what's up guys it's Oakley and we're going to be playing Empire Total War. The French guns are already unloading against the Cherokee nations. I'm going to be playing as the Cherokee and we're going to be trying to assault this French fort. It is going to be commanded by or held by a bunch of line infantry from the French who are going to be manning these cannons up on the walls. There are also a tremendous number of mortars stationed within the fort itself. So you can see the French troops already starting to reload for the second volley. The French general's bodyguard here positioned in the center and they actually have a reserve of pikemen units. Now you would wonder, wow that's kind of out of place. Well pikes inside a fort against melee troops is probably a good idea actually. Watch the troops as they man the walls here. So my guys are going to be moving up and do recall that in Empire Total War units who are attacking walls can climb it with the use of grappling hooks. So I don't need siege equipment I can just go ahead and charge right on through. However, charging right on through is perhaps not the best tactic when you have guys with cannons. Look at that. Oh and here come the mortars. Thankfully my opponent is not using explosive shot just yet. Oh now he's switched to it. But I do have a couple bowmen so you can see those shots starting to pepper the walls. Mortars striking left, right, let's get a nice shot amidst the archers. And men are going to start grappling those walls. So epic. So now the medicine men are actually going to be pouring into it. Some of the wars. Oh some shots getting off. Bowmen are going to try and fire upon the Frenchmen up on the walls but most of the shots going short. It is actually pretty hard to hit targets up on the walls. Harder than I was expecting. So the main assault is going to be underway but it is not just happening from the front. I have a bunch of troops going to start storming around the side. We have some more bowmen trying to get some flanking shots on these French units. They have already lost 8 men from those initial volleys. I myself have lost much more men. But that is the nature of sieges. So now we are going to be pouring more guys into this fight. Another couple volleys getting into my reserve. Cherokee warriors. We're trying to hold out here. Actually only losing one man. So now we are going to be following up on that assault. So more men on that front. A lot on this front. And now I have a big flanking force. Three warrior society charging through but they are getting hit from the flank by these guns. So it is going to be a complete surround of the fortress. The French are going to try and prepare themselves. They have a bunch of militia forces within the fort trying to hold out. My opponent has decided to do, like I said, the pikes which seem out of place. Not so out of place when they can go ahead and bottleneck certain areas here. So this is kind of a funny sight. These guys trying to get down the stairs as quickly as possible. But my warrior society, oh tribesmen actually. So these are the cheapest units. They are going to try and face off against my opponent. And what do we have? Well, a bunch of pikes. So this is going to be hard for me to break through. I am going to be climbing more and more portions of the wall. Shooting over with my bows. Now we have more troops grappling up. Not sure where they managed to hide all this rope within their loincloths. But hey, no one is asking questions. So here they go. Clambering over. We are going to get on some of the battlements. Actually the infantry is one level higher so they are protected perhaps for the time being. Oh, you can see some of the grappling hooks through here. And now they are going to start pulling out now that they know the Indians, the Cherokee are in the mix. So now we have come over. I believe this is, yeah, warrior society which are pretty good infantry and I have upgraded them. So now we have caught a couple of his men before they have been able to pull out. I think he is going to try and do just that. My guys are going to be unleashing on him. So we have got those forces tied down. I got a couple bowmen actually getting some nice flanking shots. That has been able to whittle away some of the French. So we are doing a good job of actually storming the front. More of our units pushing out. These are going to be bowmen trying to kind of creep around now that we have cleared the walls. So the guns have been suppressed. We can now start moving around the flanks. We have cleared out the front lines. Although like I said at the bottom it is very hard to push past these pike units. So we are not having much luck. Mass grappling hook and bowmen attacks on this front. Militia are desperately trying to redeploy to cover all fronts. But I have been able to get around the flank and I have deployed enough troops to now perhaps even cut his guys off. Some medicine men. Now I am going to make some of them going around. There is a couple of this guy just kind of being taken away by the views here. Watching the rest of his fellow Cherokee troops come and seize the walls. The militia are going to try and get out of here. They have more units sounding the retreat as they try and pull out. My guys have claimed the guns. Claimed the battlements. On this front more flanking troops. There are however militia getting ready to repel that fight. But it is going to be a fight 360 degrees for the fort. And take a look from this generals perspective. His mortars are still firing. But now look at what is up on the walls. My guys are now starting to surround. The bows are actually starting to shoot into the mix. I can kind of angle over and start to hit his mortar units. So it is not going super well for anyone left on the walls. However now the fight has pulled back to not being necessarily on the walls. They are trying to pull back to these heavily fortified stake and pike positions. The gate was busted open. Pikes are lined up here. So I may actually pull up with some archers and try and fire away through there. But for the most part clobbering through the French. Look at these mass number of units destroyed here. I am going to try and bypass some of these positions. There are French troops actually positioned within the houses. So taking as best cover as they can. I am going to be trying to unleash on my guys. Some of the mortars may actually start targeting the fort itself. But this stretch of fortification is unprotected. This is where I am going to be angling for an attack. So we have cleared away the top like I was saying. I have a lot of extra units waiting to put the pressure on once I find a breakthrough. And this is going to be just one of those points. So my bowmen have been able to seize the gate. Allowing me to position myself in through here. His line troops were going to try and get a volley off. Oh and it looks like they aren't able to against my bowmen who were trying to line themselves up. And now they are going to be charging in. So I have been able to pin his line units. This is going to allow for more of my troops to start rallying. Having found the opening the rest of the units are going to abandon their grappling hooks and push up. These are my archers. So not necessarily best. Storming troops. The rest of my storming troops are going to be trying to push through in this position. Pikes are not formed up so I can charge through. We're climbing through this position. My opponent has given way in the face of the... You know... Oh. Where did the rest of those hooks go? Okay now we got a couple more. So we're going to be pushing through here. We've seized this territory. There are not enough pikes to hold us back. Especially now that we've made headway through here. So his line is going to be suffering. I'm going to pull some of my guys over to the flank. Knowing that that is a big bottleneck against my guys. And so if my bowmen can position themselves. Kind of sneaking their way up through here. I wanted to get cover behind this house. And then what I'm going to be able to do is move up point blank and start to shoot into those guys. So perfect. We're starting to hit these defenders in the back as they're trying to force me away. But that is going to be their demise. Fire freely into their rear. Bows are continuing to pour into this front. The enemy is trying to reform here but every time he does that it's going to be an opportunity for me to pour more guys in. I have my medicine men pouring through. And these are the actual shock troops that I need. Not so much these bowmen. I need warrior society. I need medicine men. So now they're going to be contributing to this fight. The pikemen have been reformed. Trying to pull back and hold this front off. Here I've been doing a lot of damage to the rear of this force with my bows. Look at all his guys on the ground. This is easy pickings for my bowmen. They're now shuffling forward. Having a hell of a time right here. So this is perfect. My guys are starting to cut through the front. I've lost a fair amount of men but they're needed to force these units to face forwards while I pick them off from the back. Looks like the gendarmerie is going to try and commit itself to force this gate closed and it is going to be pretty effective. He's charging through his own men. Some of my guys are going to start to waver and that is going to be a bit of a chain route. My bowmen were weak. They're going to be the ones cracking. Warrior society and medicine men are going to be holding up pretty well but it did force my units back somewhat at least. This is a good amount of pressure. On this front I was able to charge. Where did I get down? I got down over here. Escape passes militiamen. Drew through here and now I'm going to be attacking his militias in the back. But the units in the house are going to be doing damage to me. I don't really want to commit to them just yet. Probably should have tried to swarm everything through this flank but my guys are actually pretty heavily distributed around the settlement. Kind of waiting for their opportunity to strike. The militia is going to be lining up. This is however where I'm making most headway. Warrior society doing pretty well. I've chewed through most of his guys. My continual bow fire has eviscerated his dudes over here but now they finally smartened up. They're going to try and turn around and face me. Wonder if they're going to have enough time. Down to 35 men left. A couple of volleys could take me out but then again, look at my volleys. Point blank rage. What do you want to have? A bow? Especially when his line isn't even firing. So I think I've broken through here and I'm actually firing into the back of his pikes. So now we're engaged in melee where he may have an advantage somewhat with the bayonet. I do have some guys with tomahawks but they're not as well disciplined or equipped as my warrior society. I've poured in more guys into the mix but the pikemen have managed to make their way to the front. This is not going to be good for me although they are starting to waver. This is bogging down my men and making them kind of tired. In the absence of the pikes on this front, I was able to pull down some warrior society and they do have some ranged attacks. They can throw some tomahawks. So I'm just getting some nice easy kills against this militia unit before I charge in and yet every one of those tomahawks lodging itself in the gut or the side of the head of these militias. This is easy. This is like we're at the fair. So yeah, doing a lot of damage to these guys. They are however protecting the mortar so I'm going to try and fight there. My units on this flank were broken. Warrior society taken out mostly because of the suppressing fire of the units in this building. What type of troops? Oh. Régiment étranger. Which are more veteran units. So a good job holding them up and these units in the garrison forts are going to be perfect. They have vantage points. They can start picking my guys off. And my units are chewing through the enemy forces slowly but these militia are tiring me out and most importantly they're sandbagging me as my opponent gets more and more shots against me. So the Cherokee fighting bravely certainly. I have another bowman unit. I'm going to be trying to break through this pikeman force. Looks like he's been actually destroyed here. So some of my guys are going to be able to start making their way down from the walls. I'm deciding to pull them into this gap where I've cleared a hole. I may be trying to storm this front but my attacks are not super coordinated. My opponent has been able to wrap up this side of the fight which means my bowmen that pulled through the gate are forced away. They're going to try and shoot these pikemen in the back. Likewise over here I'm forced to kind of run away and just at this point in time my general passed into the spirit world. He was fighting with these pikemen units just as I got my bowmen into their rear. So things are not going my way. My main rush through here has been stymied. The flow of Cherokee warriors has been stopped and now they're going to be running away. Some of them will reform but that was the main thrust of my assault. I do have a breakthrough on this front somewhat but my bow is surprisingly just not doing as much damage as I thought they would. Bows in any other game would have absolutely thrashed these pikemen. It has taken me a while to shoot through them and they are effectively blocking my warrior society who are now going to start to break because they've been exhausted. On this front here I have overwhelming numbers although again the support of his units being enough to pick my guys a couple men at a time. Here's a fresh warrior unit pushing through the front. He did break some of my guys but now we're going to charge in, clean up the rest of his force. So this has been non-stop swarming from the get-go. More of my bowmen are actually going to be coming back into the fight plus some warrior society. We're going to try and flank these guys, get them in the back just as they're trying to get my fresh warrior society. More troops coming down from the top. On this front I have a good amount of numbers. Pikemen are finally breaking. This mortar battery is going to be going down so I've taken out clusters of the enemy force. Here we go. The massive swarm on two fronts against the last line unit so this fight is not over yet. So an awesome charge on them from the front and from the back with my warriors. So dang, the French are feeling the hurt. They only have a couple units left. Meanwhile my guys are now starting to reform. If I could get, you know, this is 34 men, 49, 34, 53, that's like 100 or 200 men out there. If they can come back in that's enough to overwhelm the mortar battery, the line infantry, these militia. And I actually am slowly starting to break through although these pikemen being thorn in my side keeping my guys back. But I am kind of winning on this front however the assault I had on this flank seems to have been broken up I think mostly due to the concentrated fire of again these dastardly units just sitting safely within their houses taking me out from both flanks. So that is troublesome. And the general has not moved from the beginning of the fight. Nothing phases him. Apparently this guy is ready to go to bed already. He's got a little sock hat and the general here unfazed just staring blankly ahead. So despite the death and carnage happening around him, oh there we go, now the mortars are going to be firing, changing up their firing type. This one does a bit more damage so he's going to try and make sure my guys don't come back from the fight. Pretty good idea. And the rest of my guys that were trying to push forward here and return to the fight are going to be met by some line infantry that have reclaimed some of these cannons up on the walls and now they've reclaimed the gatehouse. This unit here has been reinforced. Oh yep, finally the general waking himself up and that is going to break the last of my units. So I assaulted this thing 360 degrees. Not entirely sure how I could have done much better. I think it was mostly due to the fact that my opponent, if you look here, brought more men than me which is not supposed to be the case for a siege. So that was one of the things that was going against me. Overall kills, you see I killed almost the same as him. Had this been a normal siege that would have favored me but because my opponent brought so many cheap units, militia, pikes, and the pikes themselves in very good positions guarding the only way down. I have no way to really stop that besides trying to break in somewhere else but that was tough. So you saw how that siege went but nonetheless it was really cool. I haven't played too many of these battles in Empire, the sieges of the forts, but they do play really cool and I think thematically with the Cherokee nation here coming in trying to swarm this combination of French militia with some regulars in here was pretty cool overall. Let's go ahead and take a look at some of the unit stats. So Warrior Society 126, my supporting bowmen. These are the guys who I think were shooting into the rear of the line for a bigger amount of time. 113 kills, that's a lot of kills overall. But mostly I think my bowmen here were kind of a waste. They weren't as effective quick firing into the flanks as I thought they would be or suppressing units on the wall so I probably could have done better with just more Warrior Society swarming everything at once, tying more units down, getting around the pikes, so that may have been my undoing. Nonetheless, like I said, it's a really fun battle, hope you guys enjoyed and yeah, that's it for this one. I'll see you in the next one. Peace out.