About to load up Medieval II - Total War

[CPA]

Any Tips? Any essential downloads?

It's been ages since I played this game.

 

[ibex333]

Well, the only tip I can give you is don't give up if the game lasts too long to your liking. Total War games are not for those that want to do things fast or those that get frustrated or annoyed easily. Tired? Annoyed? Angry? Turn off the PC - get the hell up, go out, get some air, then come back and crush the enemy! I bet you already know this, but I just thought I'd say this again just in case. I recommended TW games to some of my friends but most didn't like them. I kept hearing stupid excuses of how the game drags on for too long, or how it's taking up too much of their valuable time. I mean.. Shit.. It's not like anyone is asking players to beat TW games FAST or do it within some time limit. That's the beauty of these games - you don't really have to beat em! It's not really the main goal here. Just casually playing through the campaign, taking my time, brings me a lot of fun.

I beat every TW game that exists except for Shogun, and Medieval II. I played Medieval II about 2 years ago.. Maybe more. Beat about 50% of the campaign with the English, then got annoyed because I couldnt keep up with merchant wars and the rebellions/religious unrest. I regret it now, and want to reinstall the game and try again, but unfortunately my gaming PC died, and I'm waiting for some parts so I can get it working again.

Good luck with the game. You should probably get the expansion because it adds quite a bit of content to this already great installment.

 

[datalink7]

Stainless Steel mod if you have the Kingdoms expansion.

Link to TWC Forums

Go to hosted modifications.

Note: the forums are down at time of posting.

 

[CPA]

Don't have the Kingdoms mod. I'll take a look at the forum once it's back up. thanks.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: ibex333
....

Good post. The TW games are fantastic, you just need to have some patience.

 

[Industrial]

I just got it along with the Kingdoms expansion from last weekend's sale. I only got as far as having the princess walk me through the tutorial and then I started getting sleepy. Well, it didn't help that I started around midnight Yeah, I can see that I'm going to need to play this with some patience. I'm not a big RTS type gamer and really only got this so I can play against my friends.

I didn't install the expansion yet, but while I was reading up on it, someone mentioned it came with securom 7. Please don't turn this into a securom debate, but I'm just wondering if it's true and if there's any way to remove it once you install the expansion (which I doubt since it's SR7, but hey, someone might know something the majority doesn't know)

 

[Darklife]

Fantastic game, but it becomes laughably easy after a certain point, then its just mundane conquering just for the sake of it.

 

[CPA]

Okay, stupid game kept me up to 2:30 in the morning. bought ready to fire it back up.

 

[Rebel44]

Originally posted by: Industrial
I just got it along with the Kingdoms expansion from last weekend's sale. I only got as far as having the princess walk me through the tutorial and then I started getting sleepy. Well, it didn't help that I started around midnight Yeah, I can see that I'm going to need to play this with some patience. I'm not a big RTS type gamer and really only got this so I can play against my friends.

I didn't install the expansion yet, but while I was reading up on it, someone mentioned it came with securom 7. Please don't turn this into a securom debate, but I'm just wondering if it's true and if there's any way to remove it once you install the expansion (which I doubt since it's SR7, but hey, someone might know something the majority doesn't know)

I bought it from Steam and it (at least Steam version) doesnt have Securom

 

[Skott]

Lands to Conquer (LtC) is the best M2TW mod I have played to date. If you havent tried it then check it out.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: ibex333
I kept hearing stupid excuses of how the game drags on for too long, or how it's taking up too much of their valuable time.

Well, those are legitimate complaints. Most of the box art shows intense battle scenes.

 

[ibex333]

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: ibex333
I kept hearing stupid excuses of how the game drags on for too long, or how it's taking up too much of their valuable time.

Well, those are legitimate complaints. Most of the box art shows intense battle scenes.

I guess that the reason I got emotional about it, is because I took my time to explain to every person I ever recommended a TW game to, that it CAN be a time consuming game if you try to rush or "achieve" something, but it doesn't have to be played that way, and when it's not rushed, it becomes quite a pleasant experience. However, people usually hear what they want to hear despite my best efforts.

I probably have to agree with you, that people can be easily mislead into thinking that TW games are something that they are not. You either like this kind of games, or you don't.

As for AI, I see many people saying that it's too easy, especially in Medieval II, but I don't see it that way at all. See... I tend to suck badly in strategy games, so for me, the AI is plenty hard enough, especially if I don't pause during battles. (makes it more exciting)

Also there are very good mods out there, especially for Rome TW, that make the game difficult enough for even the most seasoned strategy veterans.

 

[Darklife]

The AI in the games leading up to Empire has been pathetic, I can understand that the battle AI isn't Napoleon incarnante, but I don't see any strategic aim that can be achieved by charging the general alone at my huge army. The fact of the matter is that the AI is very poor in attack, it charges all it's units chaotically with virtually no coordination. In defense it isn't much better, most of the time it allows you to flank them on all sides without budging.

The campaign map AI is dismal to say the least. I won't cite the many cases of 1 province states attacking your gigantic empire because I'm sure you're all familiar with them.

I think what best illustrates the deficiency is my campaign as the greek city states in RTW. Anyone who played it knows that the Seleucid Empire gets virtually wiped out every time and Egypt becomes a hegemon in Asia. So, what I did was shower the Seleucids with so much money that they could have bought all my cities twice. Even with that they were still getting pounded. So I attacked Egypt myself, reclaimed the Seleucids' cities in Syria and even gave them back to them. What I didn't do was give them back Antioch as I felt I needed something to compensate for my efforts.

So what do the Seleucids do? They attack me, their faithful ally who keeps them swimming in gold and reconquered their cities. I drove them back and gave them a million for a ceasefire, and a couple turns later they attacked again and the pattern began anew.

Perhaps it will be better in Empire as the battle AI and campaign AI are supposed to be link, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

[idiotekniQues]

how is this games multiplayer? any good? a good online community?

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

The only tip I can give is: take it slow in the beginning. Don't expand too fast. Make sure your settlements are fairly developed before you start trying to conquer other territories. I'm playing as the English and currently own all of the UK and most of western Europe because I was conservative in the beginning. I basically conquered one city at a time, securing my settlements along the way. The computer loves to suddenly declare war/peace repeatedly, so be ready for any attacks. Always keep a decent garrison in every settlement.

Edit: Oh yeah, and this game's addicting. I say to myself, "Ok, stop playing and do some work at 3..." I say that when it's 3:30, not knowing how much time has passed. But I keep playing.