Had a legitimately epic fight just a moment ago, even though it was a loss.
400 Battanians vs. 460 Western Empire, led by Garios himself. I knew it was probably going to be a loss going in but I figured I'd try it anyways.
It was in the big open field with trees ringing the whole thing.
I took half the cavalry up the right side and posted on a hill in the trees, dropping arrows and letting the infantry close in.
There's so many enemy infantry spread in a single line that there's no real way to flank them, so I ordered the cavalry in.
I go through the mass of infantry, and there's so many I'm getting a kill with every swing of my Battanian Mountain Blade, it's glorious.
I see the enemy starting to "rout" but I've learned that's really just a fighting retreat. You can tell the difference when the archers turn and fire on you as get close. I order the cav back to me and pull away, trying to get them organized and sight another mass of infantry.
After dueling a bit with enemy cavalry I see the rest of the enemy infantry massing on the wooded hill I'd been observing from previously. I order my cav to charge again and start dropping arrows into the tightly packed infantry. I go through two quivers and 90% of my shots are hits and kills. The rest of my allied infantry pours in while the archers set up firing up the hill.
It's a pretty bad scene, tactically speaking. I've taken a few minor hits but my horse is on its last legs. That's when I see the message that the current plan is an organized retreat. Ha. I order the remaining cav back to me and start retreating away from the hill, and hit enemy cavalry behind us. I start fighting them, trying to buy the other units time to flee (spoiler: they don't make it.) My horse gets cut out from under me, and almost like magic, an enemy cavalry soldier drops off his mount right next to me. I mount up again, slay some more cav, and then my mount goes down again. This has to be it, I think. But my few remaining cav and some enemy cav are bunched up and again, by luck, another one drops off his mount practically at my feet and I scoop it up, arrows sticking out of it and everything.
And then I see the message above my screen "Griff, retreat!" I high tail it out of there. The couple of friendly cav I had at my back get cut down as I start to pull away, except one. Not wanting to risk the trees or losing speed turning, I start off across the whole field to reach the other side. My horse is barely fast enough. Javelins and arrows go past me. The pursing cav behind me slays the last friendly cav, and I see the kill went to Garios himself, who is hot on my heels.
I look around. I'm literally the last Battanian on the field.
They start closing the gap on me. My horse is too slow, they'll be on me before I reach the zone boundary.
Garios comes along side and I give him a good smack right in the face, then pull away. He drops back and another cav comes up and awkwardly tries to spear me. I swing but he throws his shield up at the last second and blocks, then turns slightly in to my horse and loses his speed and drops behind me. Garios starts coming up again as I cross the red borderline of the zone, as does his buddy. The seconds count down as he moves in for another attack, and hits zero right as he starts to swing.
The post battle action had us at 11 vs. 90. And half of that number is lords dragged back to the battlefield with 1 or 2 troops a piece.
We got soundly thrashed, but goddamn, it was exhilarating from start to finish, which ya know, I generally don't get to experience getting knocked out in the first 1/3rd of most battles.