Slitherine

Third times the charm. This time the map had way smaller side forests with barely any impassable areas (which led me to take only couple Ribauds this time). The enemy also had only 4 dismounted MAA, which made the now longbow heavy frontline far more susceptible to crossbow fire than in the previous two attempts. It didn't take me long to force a sizeable MAA group around and through the left side into the enemy's flank and second line.

This time the MAA actually caused cohesion drops and couple rout/CT cascades among the average enemies at a rate that I'd even call lucky, while only couple MAA lost cohesion on my side. Towards the end of battle the casualties forced the enemy to advance over the trenches which caused most of my losses as their dismounted MAA made contact with some of my right flank of my crossbowmen that were only supported by couple mounted MAA.

The the post battle losses were 12% to 47% and overall the experience was a night and day difference between this and the two previous attempts. MAA are so much nicer to use when they don't perform like sluggish average light-spear cavalry. In this battle I certainly had some above average luck but here's hoping the rest of the campaign will go more smoothly than the first two stages.

The rest of the campaign went far more smoothly.

Battle 3 - Scots vs English - Win 13/47 (final casualties) - Patched rough terrain favoured the enemy longbows. After a rough start the spears managed to hold their ground and my 3 mounted MAA performed admirably, wreaking havoc among the enemy longbows (raw and Welsh).The battle ended with a massive rout cascade that took the rout percentage up by over 30 percentage points.

Battle 4 - French (now with pre-dismounted MAA) vs English (continental) - Win 9/46 - Decent terrain with the enemy trenches separated by a small lake. The enemy had its dismounted MAA disproportionately deployed on one side. Missile exchange was largely a draw but my dismounted MAA (concentrated on the weaker front) blasted through the trench line. Good MAA performance throughout.

Battle 5 - France vs Navarre - Win 9/59 - I chose to offer battle at disadvantage. I had a modest infantry flank with a single (pre-)Dismounted MAA and one Ribaud deployed in front of 5 crossbowmen to ZoC block the enemy. The whole infantry formation was anchored to impassable river with some reserve mounted MAA behind them. Main part of my force were the Mounted MAA on the right where they achieved a maneuver victory over the Navarrese MAA force and were even joined in the last round by the flanking reserve cavalry from the left (the infantry formation performed beyond all expectations, allowing the reserve MAA to break through the enemy).

Battle 6 - Breton vs Breton - Win 16/52 - I had my (mostly crossbow) Infantry on steep hill in two layers. I deployed a major cavalry force to right flank. The cavalry was very successful but an unfortunate pursuit rout chain by the enemy wiping out all my heavy infantry in a single turn at the left flank made the battle longer and more expensive than what it would have been otherwise.

Battle 7 - France vs England (now with stakes) - Win 12/46 - The hardest battle since the first one. My Mounted and Dismounted MAA did well but so did the enemy's. My greedy attempt to punch my cavalry through a stakeless area held by Dismounted MAA in the middle was largely unsuccessful. The infantry flanks did better and the battle was won with the slightest margin before it had time to turn for worse. Mistakes were made.

Battle 8 - France vs England (with some Scots and Burgundians mixed in) - Win 12/50 - Really solid English stake line with good pacing of longbows and dismounted MAA and a highly effective second line of longbowmen. No weaknesses to exploit. I didn't have any particularly lucky strikes or terrible rolls in this battle. It looked bad for a moment before enemy flank collapsed just a turn or two before my forces on the other flank suffered that fate.

Battle 9 - France vs English (enemy defending in a dirt walled castle that renders missile attacks toothless) - Win 19/51. Terrible siege battle against a hill fort behind river that went way better than expected but was still costly. It came close to a disaster before I managed to scrape together the necessary lead.

Battle 10 - France vs England (French last stand with field fortifications) - This is my second least favourite battle type after rear guard action. I don't really find static defense to be a viable option in FoG2 when faced by superior number of enemies, doubly so against the English with their longbows. I find an aggressive offense to be the best defense in these situations and luckily the French are well equipped for that.

The first attempt was a mess with a Loss to >60% of my troops routed with 50% enemy routed (In the end all of my infantry was gone and the Mounted MAA started collapsing). There was a brief window where 60% win was possible but that melted to some unlucky CTs and terrible pursuits that took half my cavalry force to the far edges of the map. Right from the start, my flanking MAA force was delayed when it got ZoC locked to a Ribaud standing on the only piece of rough terrain in that region of the map. When the delayed MAA finally got around to the enemy rear my infantry was already gone and I actually ended up with the enemy using my own wagon fort against my MAA. After losing, I did take a look at the comeback battle but deemed it unworkable with my army composition being completely wrong for assaulting a stake fortress.

My second attempt was a Win at 9/45 final losses (0 percent French units routed at end). Doubling down on the offence, this time I maxed my MAA and Merc MAA and bought a minimal longbow force that I deployed completely inside a small forest that I surrounded by wagons. My MAA were deployed on both flanks and swiftly destroyed the enemy MAA and Longbowman wings (with way better luck in CTs than in the previous attempt) while the enemy center (where all of their Dismounted MAA were) barely had time to exchange some arrow fire with the infantry fortification before I hit the 40% routed with the cavalry.

In the end, my average campaign score was 3027 (whatever that means). Fortunately the string of terrible luck didn't persists beyond the first two mission with most of the later battles feeling pretty close to the average as one would expect with the massive amount of RNG rolls that any one battle in FoG2 has. The French, often lacking any non-MAA cavalry, aren't my favourite faction (though they are still better fit for my playstyle than the English) but when their mounted MAA horde works, it works.