I had an epic battle a few days ago in Rome Total War that I figured I would share with you all, since there's such a big Total War following here. I was facing the Egyptians in what should have been a very one-sided battle. My army of about 2000 was confronting their army of 1200, and each of us had roughly 2000 troops in reinforcements a piece.
When the battle commenced, however, I was notified that my reinforcements were DELAYED and may not make it in time for the battle! This was a big OH SHIT moment because I knew I would need those reinforcements to have a strong victory. I prepared to fight a battle of survival.
At the start of the battle, both enemy armies arrived simultaneously, and I prepared to defend. To my utter shock, the Egyptians refused to attack and even pulled back into a defensive position, despite the fact that they had 2 times as many troops (including cavalry) as I. So, I attacked.
These are shots of the massive 3800+ strong Egyptian army. My army can be seen in the distance of the second pic.
At the very beginning, I moved my archers up protected by cavalry to weaken their lines as much as possible. The, by concentrating my cavalry and heavy troops, and using encirclement as best as possible, I was able to start a mass route on their right flank, which I then folded around to encircle their left flank. I won decisively but at a very very very heavy cost. After an hour (real-life time) of fighting, this is what the battlefield looked like!
The concentrations of dead bodies are points where I encircled the Egyptian Phalanxes. The strategy worked but at a huge cost to my troops.
At the bottom of the screen you can see some of my emaciated troop numbers. I lost about 1000 troops total, killing 2500 of theirs. My reinforcements never came ...