57 replies to this topic

[QuicoNait]

You must finish the game once to unlock all unlockble factions. Just start a small campaign, it will be quicker to finish. There are factions which are unplayabel like the Timurids, the Papa State...

PS: to all mods, please don't merge this thread with another one about Medieval II just yet, QuicoNait might have trouble finding the thread. Leave it for a few days.

Thank's!!! You helped me a lot... Going to start the small campaign right now!!!
Hurray for the Portuguese....
Regards

[thirdgumi]

You welcome. I'm going to merge this thread with another Medieval II post.

[Ming Yang]

I've had played the short campaign with the venecians and the long with the danish. With the venecians, I went conquering the byzantine empire, with no special difficulty (I was playing in difficulty medium). But when I conquered constantinople, the byzantine were still alive. Then I had to go to cyprus, were the last byzantine reduct was. But with the massive turkish navy, the byzantine navy, and some moors ships, go to cyprus it was impossible. I tried to make a navy so powerful that I can go to my objective, but the only thing that I got it was put me in practicly bankrupt, but after 20 (or more turns) of trying to get there, I see that the army I got in the coast of anatolia near cyprus can buy a mercenary galley, and in one turn arrive to cyprus. Then, after a rapid siege, I've attacked the city and win the short campaign.

With the Danish I played in maximum difficulty, after conquer the rebel settlements near daneland (Oslo, Stockholm, Hamburg, etc) the HRE declared the war.

Well, tomorrow I will continue telling my campaign.

[RollingWave]

It's pretty good. I finally got my hands on it (or rather a computer that could actually run it)

There's still some things that I would like changed . but i can't complain that much on the grander scale, they did do a much better job at historical depiction this time around than those in the past (no more crazy fiction novel like factions like the RTW Gauls and Egyptians) and the balance is a lot better. still there's some things left to be desired.

1. I feel that the upkeep system could use more work, unit upkeep shouldn't be a strait #. it should have a lot to do with what the unit is doing. say... a unit stationed in a town is different from one deep in enemy territory... they've already grasp the begining of this concept with their milita upkeeps, but they could go further.

2. devastation effect is too minimal: I think this should play a bigger factor, if a enemy army is running wild in your land, the effect on your income and popularity should be much higher. they should have a pillage mode where a army move slower but gains money and give bigger penalty to the opposition. right now you will need a HUGE army a LOOONG time on your land to have a serious impact on your money making.

3. seige is still too simple. plz, in real life you don't just wait on the walls is someone is laddering, you'd throw all sorts of harmful objects at them. not to meantion the main citidal all awe inspiring looking still does nothing.

4. on the flip side, there's no way you can camp a whole army inside a citidal and wait out a seige for years. plz... so add those together, the end result should be that seige defense should be even better but you should NOT be able to keep an identical stack inside, if you have a larger stack in you city you will starve out a lot sooner. this setup will also force a much more complex and intersting province assault, no longer just the let's walk up to the castle and attack!

5. they need to work in a logistic system, it's just unreal . in compliment there should be a real moral system on the armies on the campaign map too, a army cut off from supply / support should start a battle with moral penalty etc.. wether or not a army goes rebel should have a lot to do with that. a army that keeps retreating should have even bigger problems and have deserters. a faction that can pay it's rent should have serious desertion and rebellion issues. etc..

played as the English and Moors, didn't notice how bad the English are until I played the Moors, boy they have no defense against cavs at all outside of stakes. those long bows won't do much good if they can't hide behind the stakes and fire at a slowly marching army. meanwhile the Moors can basically put a army of Camel gunners / Jinets / mounted X-bows and just scour the map for enemy armies, its' pretty hard to beat those without suprior terrain AND a big army. the Moors having both Christian Knights along with all sorts of fast Moorish units is pretty rigged. in fact the 3 Iberian factions are nuts and whoever wins out there have a HUGE advantage over the rest of western Europe. great economy, great units. great positioning.

I've lost a few, but I'm generally pretty conservative. opening up multiple fronts is really fun though. righ now I have a big Moorish kingdom but i'm fighitn a large front in Central Europe, then I sailed to Oslo , and I have a island hopping army in the Meds at Crete, and I have a army in the new world and one headnig for the holy land. woopy (d**** Mongols always took out my Jihad target before I can get there... forcing me to move slowly ...)

Edited by RollingWave, 26 May 2008 - 03:33 AM.

[Boleslaw I]

Faction: France
Situation: Perilous

My kingdom was flourishing. I knocked the English out of French lands, swept these "sea dogs" back to their hell. For a while, my economics stagnated, and then the whole situation fell into the same category as the Song dynasty. My northern territories including lost to the hand of English:
a/ Flandre
b/ Normandie
c/Champagne
d/ Bretagne
e/ Lorraine
f/ Ile-De-France

I could only retain power to the Southern part, but economics rapidly grew, perhaps due to less burden on military affairs.
My center now move to Provence.
I love this game.

I wonder why don't we have civil war like the MTW 1, and then faction re-emergence. That should be fun. My kingdom in the previous version was ruined by civil war.

Edited by Boleslaw I, 26 May 2008 - 04:04 AM.

[mariusj]

Faction: France
Situation: Perilous

My kingdom was flourishing. I knocked the English out of French lands, swept these "sea dogs" back to their hell. For a while, my economics stagnated, and then the whole situation fell into the same category as the Song dynasty. My northern territories including lost to the hand of English:
a/ Flandre
b/ Normandie
c/Champagne
d/ Bretagne
e/ Lorraine
f/ Ile-De-France

I could only retain power to the Southern part, but economics rapidly grew, perhaps due to less burden on military affairs.
My center now move to Provence.
I love this game.

I wonder why don't we have civil war like the MTW 1, and then faction re-emergence. That should be fun. My kingdom in the previous version was ruined by civil war.

Once you get use to the new concept developed from MTW1, France should be rather easy to play.

Peasant crossbow man are cheap and effective. Even when they get wipe out, its ok since they are so cheap.

Ally with Pope to gave you more advantage in dealing [warring] with other Catholic states, though as France I would suggest join the Crusade to take either Antioch or Alexandria [forget Jerusalem, as it is expensive to maintain a big army in that region] because they have huge resources for trade. I would avoid Antioch just b/c Mongols tend to make that their homeland.

So final words would be, more city, less castle, more merchants and spies less heavy cavalry more crossbow less spear.

I think Civil War could occur, due to one of the trait on the leader 'Authority.'

But try England if you are a beginner. Scotland has no answer to England's longbow man [not that anyone has any answer for them. . .] and France in the early to mid game also have no units equal to longbow man [especially if longbow man come with an armour-piercing ax as secondary weapon]. Dismounted English Knights are awesome and cheaper then their brothers [feudal knights] and the only thing England lack is some power punching a** kicking heavy cavalry, so you have to rely on Knight Orders. But what do you fear when you can produce Robin Hood in masses?

[JB_Xyooj]

I love the looks of this game, but sadly... I don't have the capacity within my PC to run METW II. I'm a fan of Shogun Total War... but I never got a chance to test out medieval total war II.

till then its Age of Empire III for me... XD

[RollingWave]

English is a good beginer faction, if only for their easy starting position and simple field tactic, I find that the more i play the weaker their roster appears though. it's way too one dimensional. no wonder multiplayer people say that it's one of the worest 1v1 faction in any setting except high era.

the French have one of the best late game roster, but their early game is tough. as with all other Catholic factions though, playing the Pope to your advantage is almost always a easy way to win.

Also, join the first Crusade, its pretty easy to pull off because of how weak the Egyptians usually garrison the area. (most of it is still rebel at this point anyway) just walk to Venice and hire some merc gallies (make sure your not at war with those Italian / Byzantium factions though. losing a big army and heir in the middle of the sea in the early stages is pretty embarrasing) it's pretty easy to establish a kingdom in the Palestine area, and it gives you a different area to expand in and not mess with fellow Catholics. and the fun of playing against imbal rigged Elephant artilleries lol.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think the best overall factions are probably the 3 on the Iberian though, they have

a. a decent starting position that's relatively secure and pretty rich

b. good (moors) to great (Spain / Portugal) early game units (Jinets of dooooooom)

c. AWSOME, late game (ironically, the Moors might have the best late game of them all with nothing but Camel gunners)

[Aaron]

I would have to say that my preference in the Grand Campaign would be the Egyptians, simply because if used properly, you can fight off not only the Mongols, but later the Timurids... Though that's for Islamic factions. Orthodox would have to be the Russians (Since with them, you can also beat off the Mongols). And lastly for Catholic factions, it easily goes to either Spain/Portugal or Venice. (Venetian Heavy Infantry FTW!)

[mariusj]

Byzantine can take anyone on once they get their Varangian Guards.

In earlier period, Byzantine cavalry archers can beat most country.
Prior to the Mongol invasion, you should have Varangian Guards. They are awesome to the point they could stand a heavy calvary charge and then beat the cavalry. [I think only after 1.3 patch. prior to that, the skeleton model for axes were wacked.] Nothing, I repeat, nothing could beat them on a wall. Nothing short of a cannon hits and musket volley could rout them in street. So they are awfully good defensive units. Put them with your horse archers and you could beat the Mongols to a whelp. If you put in a few siege [sadly no gunpowder nor flamethrower in the orginial game] you can easily beat back the Mongols in no time.
Timurids, well, they are hard. It is no easy feat.


In the Kingdoms Expan. Byzantine got upgraded to fearsome. They now have two handed swordsman, early gunpowder units [who needs those when you have. . . ] and FLAMETHROWER!

[RollingWave]

the problem with the Byz in vinilla is simple, they have virtually no gunpowder units pass the basic bombards. this isn't a huge issue when playing against the computer though. but in reality well used gunpowder army will win big time. and in normal MTW2 the gunpowder event happens pretty quickly

[mariusj]

the problem with the Byz in vinilla is simple, they have virtually no gunpowder units pass the basic bombards. this isn't a huge issue when playing against the computer though. but in reality well used gunpowder army will win big time. and in normal MTW2 the gunpowder event happens pretty quickly

In PVP, no artillery allowed. So, worst thing one has to fear from Byz. is the musketeers and hand gunners. Mostly likely no one will use 8 units of gunpowder [well, its like no one will use a pure Dragoon army. . .] so 4 units of Musketeers will probably be your worst fear. Now given Byzantine have good cavalry archers [their 1st and 2nd tiers are both powerful melee and archer units] they can disrupt enemy formation and force enemy to come to them. Depending on terrain, musketeers can either be reduce to downright worthless or somewhat dangerous. Since enemy have 4 units of these weak melee units, 2 unit of cavalry archers will force your opponent to have some thing either chase them down or sit behind to prevent them from attacking. So in my opinion, gunpowders are both a blessing and a curse.
Gunpowder units also have the stupid AI in which they would sometimes stop firing due to terrain or rank issues. The logistic support is pretty bad in this game. I figure that in a good cavalry charge, I could cover the ground of in range to melee in two volley. So even if I were to charge head on [which I won't] I will have multiple units of cavalry charging. Now depending how you set your gunpowder to skirmish or stand and fight, they will be taken out of commission once melee began.
So gunpowders aren't that scary, especially when they are that fragile.


In Campaign mode, you don't really need gunpowder units. In fact, Byzantine military aren't defensive in the field. They have powerful cavalry archers and extremely powerful anti-cavalry cavalry. With their elite infantry and guard archers, its very well rounded that you don't need gunpowder. Gunpowder doesn't happen for a while. In fact, Mongols will invade first before you get gunpowder. So if you can beat back the Mongols and hold your land, you don't have to fear any AI.

[Boleslaw I]

In PVP, no artillery allowed. So, worst thing one has to fear from Byz. is the musketeers and hand gunners. Mostly likely no one will use 8 units of gunpowder [well, its like no one will use a pure Dragoon army. . .] so 4 units of Musketeers will probably be your worst fear. Now given Byzantine have good cavalry archers [their 1st and 2nd tiers are both powerful melee and archer units] they can disrupt enemy formation and force enemy to come to them. Depending on terrain, musketeers can either be reduce to downright worthless or somewhat dangerous. Since enemy have 4 units of these weak melee units, 2 unit of cavalry archers will force your opponent to have some thing either chase them down or sit behind to prevent them from attacking. So in my opinion, gunpowders are both a blessing and a curse.
Gunpowder units also have the stupid AI in which they would sometimes stop firing due to terrain or rank issues. The logistic support is pretty bad in this game. I figure that in a good cavalry charge, I could cover the ground of in range to melee in two volley. So even if I were to charge head on [which I won't] I will have multiple units of cavalry charging. Now depending how you set your gunpowder to skirmish or stand and fight, they will be taken out of commission once melee began.
So gunpowders aren't that scary, especially when they are that fragile.


In Campaign mode, you don't really need gunpowder units. In fact, Byzantine military aren't defensive in the field. They have powerful cavalry archers and extremely powerful anti-cavalry cavalry. With their elite infantry and guard archers, its very well rounded that you don't need gunpowder. Gunpowder doesn't happen for a while. In fact, Mongols will invade first before you get gunpowder. So if you can beat back the Mongols and hold your land, you don't have to fear any AI.

Actually, the only group that I can rely on counter-attack English longbowmen was the Scot Guards. They are armoured anyhow, ha, ha.

[mariusj]

Actually, the only group that I can rely on counter-attack English longbowmen was the Scot Guards. They are armoured anyhow, ha, ha.

My favorite unit. Extremely well rounded. They come very late though, and they can't put down spikes and have shorter range.

I think the Milan's Crossbow Man are the better counter to Longbow man. They have a giant shied protecting when they reload. Since Longbow aren't armour piercing, it makes up for the terrain disadvantage.

Also, Turk's Janissary Archers also are very good. I think less armour then Scots Guard, but nevertheless good units with spikes.

But..... English longbow man came SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO early. Level 2 range. . .

Scot guards came at giant city and Janissary archer came at royal barracks... that is like 70 turns into the game. While Longbow man could be recruited as early as 6.

[RollingWave]

yes, they come very early, that's a big advantage.

my issue with the English is that they simply have 0 skrimisher. and their heavy cavs is a bit sub par by Catholic standards while having virtually no spearman. they could lose out to someone who goes mass mass cav. as long as they avoid fighting the stakes (btw, I had several games where i got careless and accidently ran my general into my own stakes while chasing routers.. woops)

yes i find most of the foot gunpowder units to be pretty junk unless they're fighting in cities. the mounted once are usually awsome though. in vinilla as the Moors one could simply run a stack of camel gunners supported by a few heavy cav and destroy every other army roaming the map.