Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

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Albatross_Viking
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Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Albatross_Viking »

I just saw that a member here (sorry, cant remember the name) asked if someone played Oblivion, so ill try asking about Medieval 2: Total war.
I bought this game recently, so, if anyone here play it, wich of the starting factions do you think is best to start as (currently trying as England).

A_V
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Aliencat »

Yep, I play the game, and I love it :D
Once you've gotten the hang of it and finished a campaign or two you should try the expansion pack, Kingdoms, it's just absolutely marvelous!
As for which faction to start as, if you're new to the game I'd suggest England, they start on an island, the sea is a barrier many of your foes will find too costly to cross (ships and their crews cost a lot of money, not just to manufacture/draft, but also in upkeep). So you can work on pacifying your islands first. Note: once you've eliminated Scotland, you can start a new campaign as the Scots too, this goes for any faction you destroy, you get to start a new campaign as them from the main menu.
While you conquer the British Isles, make sure you keep Caen under good defense, since that's your only foothold on the European mainland. Once the islands are pacified, you can use the settlements there to boost your economy and raise lots of money, because they'll be cheap in defense: like I said your foes aren't likely to cross the seas when there's still enemies to fight closer to home. You can use that money to recruit mighty armies in Caen and start your conquest of the European mainland.

Once you've gotten a bit more into the game I think the most fun is going on crusades, there's so many extra features there. I usually decide to take part in the campaign, and once I have succesfully conquered Jerusalem, offer it to the Pope as a gift. This makes the Pope absolutely love you, and you won't have to deal with defending Jerusalem against the Muslim factions the middle east is full of.

The most fun I've had in campaigns were probably playing as the Danes and as France. The French have a very strong economy right from the beginning, and once you've conquered the Iberian peninsula there's no more enemies to your west, so you can focus your military strength on your eastern and northern borders.
The same goes for the Danes, once you've pacified Scandinavia, there's no one else to the north and you can focus on bolstering your defenses in the south only.

But there's just too many ways to play the campaigns than can possibly be described. The great thing about this game is that you decide how you play, where you go, and so on.

One of the best features in the game for me are the battles, and especially the sieges, they can be so epic, and if you've got a good pc, it looks incredibly sweet! Every person on the battlefield is randomly generated to have a different face and even as nitpicky as different shoes than the guy next to him, so you don't have an army of identical looking clones, like in Stronghold or similar games, you have an army of all different people. The battle gameplay is smooth and absolutely great! I'm a big fan of this game :D
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by knight howdy »

i play the game to!
it's awsome.
i downloaded a mod so you can play with a dutch army...it's freaking awsome.
and when i got kingdoms i was like:AW MY GAWD!
thats a awome expension pack.
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Albatross_Viking »

Thanks for that, AC.
Ive got some questions:
Yesterday i laid siege to Edddinburgh, and the pope immediatly threadened me to not make any more military actions against Scotland for 7 turns. I just captured the city i had already attacked, and my relations with the pope worsened anyways. I still got it a 7-8 however. But id like to know if your papal relations means very much, cause its quite provocating to get a warning when you sit thinking "Ha! now ill finally get that city!". And now those scots have started attacking me :/
Also, i see everybody allying each other, but no one wanna ally me :( (the moors got like 3 allies...)
But when thats said, youre right that is a really good and quite realistic game (fx. that characters get older, realistic, but irritating. My faction leader died 60 years old just before i attacked Scotland...)
EDIT: i think i saw somewere that you could play as all nations after completing a short or long campaign as one of the five staring nations. Is that right?
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by knight howdy »

Albatross_Viking wrote:Thanks for that, AC.
Ive got some questions:
Yesterday i laid siege to Edddinburgh, and the pope immediatly threadened me to not make any more military actions against Scotland for 7 turns. I just captured the city i had already attacked, and my relations with the pope worsened anyways. I still got it a 7-8 however. But id like to know if your papal relations means very much, cause its quite provocating to get a warning when you sit thinking "Ha! now ill finally get that city!". And now those scots have started attacking me :/
Also, i see everybody allying each other, but no one wanna ally me :( (the moors got like 3 allies...)
But when thats said, youre right that is a really good and quite realistic game (fx. that characters get older, realistic, but irritating. My faction leader died 60 years old just before i attacked Scotland...)
EDIT: i think i saw somewere that you could play as all nations after completing a short or long campaign as one of the five staring nations. Is that right?
A_V
you can unlock most nations.
i didnt really care what the pope said....it's really annoying,sometimes i just wanted to kill him.
and yeah it's hard to ally with other faction but this is what i mostly do.
make sure you get atleast trade rights...it's easy to ally and you get more money.
after some turns just ask for a alliance,2 things you shouldnt do.
1)attack them,REALLY DON'T)
2)don't attack there ally's.
hope it helps.
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Aliencat »

Albatross_Viking wrote:Yesterday i laid siege to Edddinburgh, and the pope immediatly threadened me to not make any more military actions against Scotland for 7 turns. I just captured the city i had already attacked, and my relations with the pope worsened anyways. I still got it a 7-8 however. But id like to know if your papal relations means very much, cause its quite provocating to get a warning when you sit thinking "Ha! now ill finally get that city!". And now those scots have started attacking me :/
Well, it depends on just how you want to play. The pope doesn't like it when you, a catholic faction, attack another catholic faction (he doesn't mind if you attack orthodox christians like the Byzantines or Novgorod (Russia)). When you attack one of your fellow catholic factions, the Pope will emplore you to stop. But mind you: he does the same to other factions attacking you, if you are in good will with the Pope.
If you ignore him and attack anyway, he'll like you less (as you can see in the Papacy menu), and if you do it again he can excommunicate you. This is a bad thing for a few reasons: he will no longer try to stop other catholic factions from attacking you, so your neighbours will be more willing to attack you. When playing England, by far most of your population is catholic (you can see what percentage of people follows what religion per region), and your people don't like it when you disobey the church. So public order will go down and people are more likely to riot.
Once again, this depends totally on how you play: if you have the military force to keep your catholic neighbours at bay and suppress public unrest where it rears its ugly head, you should be fine. When the pope dies and a new pope is elected by the house of cardinals, in most cases you'll be accepted again as a fellow catholic faction.

What you can do, is for example attack Edinburgh, the pope will ask you to stop, you attack anyway and take Edinburgh, and then send a diplomat to the next Scottish settlement over (Inverness if they have it), and offer a ceasefire. This way you're still showing the Pope that you're willing to try, and listening to him, but you still get the city you were after.
If you do this too often, your reputation to other factions will go down, they'll think of you as a dubious force who doesn't stick with your agreements, and they'll be less willing to ally with you. Which brings me to your next question ;)
Albatross_Viking wrote:Also, i see everybody allying each other, but no one wanna ally me :( (the moors got like 3 allies...)
Allies come with time. Other factions have to get the idea that they get something out of the alliance. They'll be more willing to ally with a powerful empire, than with some meaningless little kingdom. So obviously the more powerful you are, the more willing other factions will be to ally with you. Basically if you go forth and conquer, allies will eventually come to you.
But allies are a dubious thing, they can also very suddenly and without warning turn on you and attack you again, if it suits their personal agenda. So never leave your borders with the French (for example) unguarded because they're allies. They will see you leaving your borders unguarded and a plan a military campaign to take those border regions for themselves. Also if you attack allies of your allies, they'll always turn against you: you were the aggressor, the one attacking.
Albatross_Viking wrote: EDIT: i think i saw somewere that you could play as all nations after completing a short or long campaign as one of the five staring nations. Is that right?
That is right, but there's three factions you cannot play: The Papal States, the Mongols and the Timurids (and the rebels of course but they're not a faction). I saw a cheat on the internet which allows you to play the Papal States, but I've never tried it.
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knight howdy
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by knight howdy »

you shoudn't try that cheat.
i ruins the gameplay,it is kinda lame.
and im pretty sure thers a mod where you can play with the mongols.
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Albatross_Viking »

The problem with the pope is over (for now at least). Hes excommunicated Scotland :D
What do you guys think about Venice, is it a good faction?

A_V
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by CastleLord »

Well i have played this game, but when i found out that i could play as the Norwegians in the expansion i played that one and Now Norway owns the hole world Bwahaha :twisted:
*Ahem* Back to the game it was fun to play and i begun with the English aswell and it was a great experience and my tip is that you first get trade rights and then rights to move your troops over their land and then you might ask them for an alliance, But keep in mind that some factions will not go into an alliance with you.
My favourite of the Total War series is Rome total war. A great game you should try that one too.

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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Aliencat »

Albatross_Viking wrote:The problem with the pope is over (for now at least). Hes excommunicated Scotland
Good stuff :) Now the Pope will even approve of you attacking Scotland, so this is your moment to strike and conquer their lands.
Albatross_Viking wrote:What do you guys think about Venice, is it a good faction?
Venice, like any faction, has its pros and cons.
They have some very strong troops and very good morale. For example, their militia can hold their own against most professional troops. These are just town folk (civilians) that are drafted and sent into battle so they're cheap to recruit and cheap in upkeep (sometimes even free in upkeep because they live and work in the city anyway). The problem with most militia is that they lack training, equipment and morale, but the Venitian militia are fierce and can hold their own in most battles, especially on defense (they're not very good for attacking or besieging).
They also field a good variety of strong infantry, both in light and heavy armour, and in the late period, when gunpowder has been invented, you can recruit some of the most excellent professional musketeers and cannoneers of Europe.

What the Venitian army lacks, however, is good cavalry. You can get some strong knights in the later period, but they're somewhat outdated then and very expensive. And if you look at the stats, apart from their practically unbreakable morale they're not much better than your basic cavalry, the Mounted Sergeants, or the Mailed Knights.
All in all Venice has a very strong army though, even if it does lack a bit in cavalry.

I think the worst con, though, is Venice's starting position. You're literally squished in between the Papal States, who you don't want to mess with for obvious reasons, the Holy Roman Empire, a huge and mighty empire, Milan, which has some of the strongest infantry units in the game, Hungary (probably your best target from the beginning, although they are a catholic faction as well), and Byzantium.
Your starting regions are also spread out too much, you can a powerful city as your centrepoint, Venice, but it's already too big to convert to a castle so you'll have to defend it very well. Without the city of Venice you're nothing, for the sheer income it provides you with, it's a trade hub and a wealthy city.
Then you have Ragusa, a region stretched very thinly along the coastline, with one castle in it, and plenty of enemies to the northeast who would like to push you off into the sea. Admitted, this castle can be defended more easilly than Venice itself, and makes for good military barracks to recruit troops to attack eastern Europe with.
And finally you have Heraklion, a settlement on the island of Creta. As said before island settlements are relatively safe from attack, because of the high cost for your enemies to reach them, but all alone on the island Heraklion is quite isolated and far away from everything. If it should get attacked, there's no way for you to get reinforcements there before the enemy besieges and takes the city.

So Venice in short: Great army (infantry in particular), bad starting position.

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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Albatross_Viking »

Your very good at describing Total war factions, AC :)
But its Sad its imposible to play as those factions... They seem quite interesting IMO. As Papal States, you can probably attack a catholic faction, and if it shows too strong, just excomunicate it and order all other catholics to attack it :D

Yeah, Venices spread-out settlements are quite annoying...
Maybe i should just finish a campaign as England first and then try another faction.
Btw., is it required to complete a short or long campaign as a faction before you can play the "grand campaign" (mean where you have to conquer everything)?

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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Aliencat »

Albatross_Viking wrote:Maybe i should just finish a campaign as England first and then try another faction.
I'd recommend that, finishing a campaign first, and the English are as good a campaign as any to try to complete first.
Albatross_Viking wrote:Btw., is it required to complete a short or long campaign as a faction before you can play the "grand campaign" (mean where you have to conquer everything)?
I think you may have gotten things mixed up. The "Grand Campaign" is the main game mode that you're playing now, with a campaign map and individual battles. This can either be a short or a long campaign, so both the short and long campaign are Grand Campaigns. Finishing a short or a long campaign unlocks all the other factions but that's about all it does. The real fun is in trying different factions and using them in different ways as you try different campaigns :)

Once you've reached your goal of for example conquering 45 regions including Jerusalem (I believe that's the goal for the English long campaign, short is something like control 15 regions and elimite the Scottish and the French I think), you'll get a little cinematic saying you've won, and after that you'll get the question if you want to continue playing. If you choose to continue playing you can go on and conquer the whole known world.
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Albatross_Viking »

Oh, thats how to conquer it all. Thanks!
One more question (just tell me i im irritating :wink: ). Is there a way to make my cardinal one of those preferati, so he can become pope?

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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by Aliencat »

Yes there is, make sure your cardinal's piety rating is higher than the other cardinals up for election. When the pope dies, there will always be three available cardinals to become the new pope. The more cardinals you have, the more votes you can cast in the council of cardinals, so that also matters. The three cardinals up for election are usually the three most pious cardinals in the council, that's how they get picked to be a candidate for election.

How do you raise your piety rating? Denouncing and executing heretics by trial is the most surefire way, but not always available, there's not always heretics around. Positioning your cardinal in an area with a relative low percentage of catholics among the population, will cause him to start converting people and slowly bring up the percentage of catholics in that region. This will also boost his piety, but it will take longer.
The best target locations are locations owned by muslim factions, because they will try to convert te population to islam, as you try to convert them to christianity, this way your cardinal will be converting at a constant rate and his piety will go up constantly. Beware though: This does make your cardinal a target for assassination by the muslim faction in control of the area. Assassins can usually not be detected by priests and cardinals, so you won't even see them coming ;)
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Re: Does anyone play Medeival 2: Total War?

Post by DO+1 »

I love this game, especially when gunpowder comes in to play

I love sending my knights on charges across plains to wreak havoc on the enemy, then withdrawing them and having my crossbows fire bolts at them to finish them off :lol:But In the later ages, my armies are usually made up of musketeers,gendarme,and Tercio pikemen to form a wall of steel.
I also love how the infantry are all balanced out in rock paper scissors fashion,but I can't remember who beats who? :lol:
My only gripe with this game is the sometimes-dumb ai :spin:
They will sometimes charge their calvary right in to my sharpened stakes
My favorite factions are Spain and Russia,because they have some pretty sweet units,like gendarme and cossack musketeers. I also like their flags :D And also,it is not medeival themed,but the next one in the series,Empire Total War is out,but the infantry are armed with guns and bayonets,not swords and axes :?
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