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Playing Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, the Brittania campaign. I have primarily Welsh ancestry so decided to see what I can do since you can control them vying for continued independence against England's sword. You can also play as Scotland (and get a badass free army when William Wallace enters the history books).
Chapter 1: Llywelyn The Great
With Wales you start off with Llywelyn the Great, basically the Welsh cultural equivalent to William Wallace. He is an insane general in the early game, and his heir Prince Dafydd is not far behind. Beating the English with Llywelyn early on gives the Welsh immense pride and you get small free armies that pop up around the countryside. I built 2 extra big armies with these initial free troops. One was lead by Prince Dafydd, and the other a young 2 star general I wanted to give some experience to named Ieuan of Clynnog Fawr. Llywelyn's veteran troops continued their march South, Dafydd began conquering to the East, then turned to the North, and Ieuan marched Eastward to Oxford.
More men rose to the cause of war in the countryside, and English resistance was weak to the overwhelming rise of Welsh pride and might. These new men were used as the basis of the garrisons for the conquered English towns, being some of the best early Welsh units.
Llywelyn conquered Cornwall and raised his banner in the region before passing on due to a mysterious illness.
Chapter 2: King Dafydd's Rule Begins
Dafydd was crowned new King of Wales, and Welsh expansion soon began to halt temporarily. Dafydd, showing that he was more than a conqueror, began a nationwide focus on building up the infrastructure of the vast lands he now ruled. Everything from Cornwall in the South, to Oxford in the East, to Cumberland in the North was under Welsh dominion. Prince Edward of England soon departed for the Ninth Crusade, giving King Dafydd time to accomplish his goal of building defenses and expanding the economies of his new lands.
Wales and Scotland announce an alliance. William Wallace emerges and induces fright in the remaining English and Norwegian lords of the North. King Dafydd feels his position continue to strengthen, and turns his attention to building up a navy. Welsh fleets soon dominate the Irish sea and blockade the remaining English ports in Ireland. However, Edward returned from his Crusade and is crowned King Edward I. The new king begins planning to retake lands that are now in King Dafydd's hands, and has a big army of Knights Templar at his back.
Chapter 3: The Battle of Kingsroad
The inevitable battle happens on the road between Chester and Lancaster. King Dafydd surprises King Edward, and has extra reinforcements from the North. The Welsh and English army stare each other down while Dafydd places his reinforcements on his right flank, angling them towards Edward's forces. Edward finally moves, English longbowmen and Templar crossbows running in range of the Welsh archers. The Welsh advantage in arrows created some chaos in the English army, and most of the longbows and half the crossbows were lost in the first large skirmish.
King Dafydd then executes the second part of his skirmish plan, marching his two units of javelin skirmishers towards Edward's weakened front line. With the added javelins the archers march forward, getting in range of the rest of the English army now. Both flanks begin to cave in for Edward. Dafydd realizes he is outnumbered on horse, and the heavy armor on the rest of Edward's Templar forces shows him that his arrows will be less effective. So he begins the charge.
Most of the Welsh infantry is lightly armored, and Dafydd knew that many would die to defend their new lands. He uses his weaker melee units to do as much damage to King Edward's line as possible, keeping his own heavy infantry back for the moment. The rangers used the rest of their ammo during the melee, but most of the Welsh melee was cut down and routed. It looked like Edward could still come out on top, but he was still outnumbered, and the English cavalry superiority was now evened out.
The final Welsh charge began. The rangers pulling out their melee weapons now. Dafydd used his numbers to run his remaining infantry around the remaining English, surrounding Edward's forces, using his remaining heavy infantry as the anchor of the final charge. Edward keeps his final guards outside of the Welsh circle, and charges into the rear of a Welsh archer. Edward soon found Dafydd's own cavalry smashing into his rear flank. King Dafydd then slew King Edward in a one on one melee. The very few remaining English soldiers instantly surrendered. The battle had largely been even. 700 Welsh fell in the Battle of Kings. But they took an equal number of English with them, more importantly, powerful Templar units. The largest victory that day was felling King Edward, which left King Dafydd of Wales the undisputed power of the region.
Chapter 4: The Sack of York
After the dust settled from the Battle of Kingsroad Lord Ieuan began to mobilize once more. In a rather memorable battle against the English Lord Edward Dangerfyld, Lord Ieuan ordered his catapult to open fire on the English line. The first stone that the catapult fired smashed into Lord Edward, killing him instantly. Lord Edward was the first casualty of this skirmish for Oxford. Lord Ieuan emerged victorious and kept the fortified center under Welsh control.
After Lord Ieuan's victory King Dafydd began to mobilize for a force of his own and marched on the English stronghold of York. With Edward out of the way and his defensive lines holding it was time to strike! The Welsh king's forces broke through the border defenses and took York with little trouble, sacking the rich haven in the process.
Chapter 5: The English Marches
Even with King Edward dead the English did not give up on their goal to take back control and conquer the Welsh. Small strike teams penetrated into Welsh territory, being beaten away from Oxford continually by Lord Ieuan. A young English Lord Alan Hayway almost made it to ancestral Welsh borders, from before the marches of Llywelyn. Lord Alan was stopped by a young Welsh Lord Meilir Idwal, and a battle occurred near Shrewsbury Castle. Lord Alan fought valiantly but the Welsh lines held and the English noble fell in battle.
Every Lord the English sent to take back their cities from the Welsh fell in battle, it was a true slaughter. More men fell to King Dafydd's sword as they tried to retake York. Another English Lord, Walter of Glastonbury, began a siege of the Welsh garrison at Gloucester. The Welsh Lord in charge of the defenses was Tiernan of Bangor. Both lords fell in battle, and Gloucester remained under Welsh dominion.
Chapter 6: Ieuan the Honorable
While King Dafydd recovered from the Siege and Sacking of York, Lord Ieuan finally managed to march South and take Winchester from English control. The two pronged assault of English land from King Dafydd and his loyal vassal Lord Ieuan the Honourable of Clynnog Fawr, was resoundingly successful, and English domination of the British Isles was slowly slipping away from the English crown.
Before Lord Ieuan could fully recover from his conquest of Winchester he found himself besieged by an English army. Despite the battle Ieuan still had the larger overall force and managed a successful defense, keeping Winchester under the rule of Wales.
Lord Ieuan's defense was considered a piece of tactical genius and risk. Ieuan charged his own cavalry out and took out England's catapult men to open the battle. He then used England's own battering ram to protect his skirmishers. By the time England's melee units made it to the Welsh line they were under arrow and javelin fire, and would retreat quickly.
Chapter 7: Politics of The British Isles
King Dafydd managed to strengthen his alliance to the northern Scots by marrying off his daughter and gaining the devotion of the young Scottish Lord Cormac Bell. Bell's trip to Wales has been delayed due to Scottish military movement towards the South.
[img width=700 height=388]http://whydidiplaythis.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/cormac-the-unfortunate.png[/img]
Cormac the Unfortunate
The English King William was in a precarious position since the fall of York. King Dafydd's conquest of York left him trapped just to the North at Newcastle, with almost no backup. Surrounded by Scots to the North and the army of King Dafydd to his South, and the garrison of Cumberland to his West, the King of England was forced to wait for reinforcements.
The Irish tribes were knocking on the doors of English control of Ireland as well, having an army just outside of Dublin, where English trade was blocked by the dominant Welsh fleets of the area. A complete Celtic pincer was pushing the Norman nobility of England aside, and re-establishing dominance.
[img width=700 height=393]http://whydidiplaythis.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/rhys-the-spy-lands-in-ireland.png[/img]
Rhys the Spy lands in Ireland
A rebellion of English lords was also spotted by King Dafydd's agents just outside Dublin as well, making both the Irish and rebel armies direct threats to the English stronghold.
Chapter 8: A King Deserted
King Dafydd left his post at York to chase down William's reinforcements, lead by the English Lord Aston Courtnay. Now Dafydd's army was much more balanced, having a large cavalry presence, as well as plenty of melee and his typical collection of archers and skirmishers.
Lord Aston stood little chance, his own bodyguard was ravaged early in the battle. Dafydd's cavalry sealed the battle by charging into the rear of the English infantry during the melee. King Dafydd broke away from the cavalry battle to take out the men using Lord Aston's catapults. The left flank of the King of Wales had almost collapsed by the time the cavalry fighting was over, but the crash of Welsh cavalry in their rear flank broke them instantly.
King William was now alone, with little to protect him, and the mighty Welsh King on his doorstep.
Chapter 9: The Siege of Newcastle
After the battle King Dafydd took an abandoned English fort near the border to Newcastle, resting before marching towards Newcastle Upon Tyne, where King William was trapped. The Welsh king quickly opened siege to the final English stronghold in the North.
[img width=700 height=393]http://whydidiplaythis.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/the-celtic-alliance.png[/img]
The Celtic Alliance ft. Cormac the Unfortunate
There was an English garrison to the North of Newcastle in a fort on the border to Scotland, which was besieged by a large Scottish force. King Dafydd took this opportunity to begin his assault on the King of England. With the Scots to the North Dafydd was confident in his position.
Chapter 10: Newcastle Falls
King Dafydd opened the battle by pushing his siege ram and tower to the walls, knocking the gate down and storming the walls. The battle of Newcastle's walls did not last long, with the veteran Welsh force triumphant. Many of the Welsh men with ladders were Dafydd's rangers, so he held them back until his melee was on the walls, then charged them forward and let them take positions to open fire once on the walls.
All of these movements were successful, and Dafydd looked to be well on his way to easily capturing Newcastle and killing his second King of England. However, once on the walls Dafydd felt the ground begin to shake. William's siege weapons had opened fire, but were hitting the buildings of Newcastle at first. The poor church would lose its tower and catch flame.
King William fell in battle while fleeing, being claimed by Welsh arrows. However, King Dafydd fell just after watching the King of England fall, to a flaming boulder launched by one of William's catapults, dying instantly along with a few of his men.
The Welsh forces proceeded to victory, then began to mourn their fallen King.
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