Medieval 2: Total War

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There's a few islands off the coast of England as well, and loads more scattered about that they didn't put in.

I doubt they considered insignificant things worth their time. Like, Wales is 'rebel' owned at the start of the game . Bet the taffs aren't chuffed with that, when even Scotland is a playable country!

 

How big is America if you've got there? It's supposed to be very lucrative trade and easy to defend once you beat the natives.

 

It's not appeared on my map yet. Not sure what year the New World is discovered, or how you do it!

 

So they made Scotland playable after all? Awesome. I'll be getting this soon, then.

 

Is there a city in Sweden?

The map looks like the other games, but if you can go over to America: cooool. Although I find it hard to believe there would be any cities over there exept for the Inka ones.

 

Yeah there's Stockholm there for the taking.

Just figured the Americas thing out.

When you get your first carrack (first proper deep sea boat) built, the map gets a bit wider and you can sail out into the fog of war. Apparently it's a good idea to send 2 fleets - 1 with a good army and another with a load of priests to try and convert the population, spies to explore around and merchants to send back all the gold you find. I'll have my first carrack built soon and I'll be going there.

The Aztecs shouldn't give me any grief though. No horses, no mail armour, no gunpowder and no war machines. It should be a slaughter.

[ November 16, 2006, 20:58: Message edited by: Barmy Army ]

 

Even the French could'nt cock that up.

 

Wouldn't go that far, they couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery

 

Just called up the retail store, and they are sold out!

 

Gutted mate! Just goes to show I'm not lying to you

I entitle this... longbowmen devastation!

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/9163/0006dj5.jpg

 

So hows the difficulty of the campaign? One of the turn off's with Rome was the campaign was too easy especially after you get a bit of momentum you just have to keep killing smaller army's without challenge and it got a bit tedious. I guess now the AI is improved this might be a bit better now. Nice pic.. almost makes you feel sorry for the Scots.

 

If you stick it on very hard / very hard difficulty settings it's pretty challenging. The opposition don't do stupid things like attack 3 full stack armies with 2 units of peasants. They don't attack you unless they know they'll win. They don't mess about either. Whilst my armies were away securing lower France, the Milanese slipped in with 4 full stack armies and took 4 of my cities at once. They didn't even put sieges up, they knew I had small garrisons and just attacked straight away and overwhelmed the defence. Took me a while to get back on track after that. Tricky little buggers those Milanese.

They also use spies a lot more and stir up a lot of unrest in your settlements if you don't have spies and assassins of your own to fish them out and eliminate them.

One of the best new things is in the battles though. It's no longer just hack, hack, hack. You actually see men fighting and you can see the killing blows. It's really nifty.

 

You've made me want to play the first game again. That's okay since I have the first one, haven't won anything yet, have a better GFX card now (my last one dropped me to windows at the end of a massive battle and I gave up) and won't be getting the second one any time soon (or be able to play it on my config all too well). But I still have a couple of questions:

1. Scripting. Do you get the annoying scripting making easily conquered enemies respawn with more guys and better tech than yours? I remember I played as Poland in the earliest-starting scenario and conquered all Russia, Livonia, Finland, Ukraine, Hungary, Rome even. The Hungarians I finished off in North Italy respawned somewhere in South France and got Italy back and threated all I had in no time with immensely expensive units they got out of nowhere. I was teching very fast and developing a solid economic base at the same time and they just spammed out of nowhere with units I barely had researched and hardly could afford. Does the same happen in II?

2. Mongols. Do they still come with always just the comfortable couple thousand more guys than you? Do they still get those oh so very historical swarms of heavy cavalry? I remember I would run out of arrows and fatigue levels before they ran out of men and horses. And no matter what I did, what brilliant tricks I pulled, killing their king right off the bat, slaughtering the first couple waves like pigs, smashing down the artillery with a mobile cavalry unit before it could threaten my deployed archers... No matter what, the Mongols always had more guys and better and faster and more intelligent reinforcements. Do I need to prepare for the same?

Oh, and if you like this game, you may want to try out Crusader kings.

 

1 - It depends whether you killed all the factions family members or not. Re-appearances occur if say, the faction heir survives your conquest and goes into hiding. He'll then muster support an raise an army (i.e Alfred the Great style). I assume the game has to make them the best troops in big numbers to make it a bit more difficult . It would be no good the remaining family member making a comeback with 2 stacks of peasants and some militia archers! If you attack Rome then this happens A LOT (there's always someone wanting to become the new Pope). You have to leave big armies around just in case. But to be honest, when you've got plenty of provinces money is never a problem. If I'm ever short of money, I attack a few settlements, sack them and raise them to the ground. Good loot to be gained doing that! I wonder why that's why my King always gets the name 'the Tyrant' or 'the Conqueror'...

2 - Yes, the Mongol hordes still appear. That's why I always leave the Turks and Byzantines well alone until the Mongols appear. Let them deal with them, then you clean up the mess. I have dealt with the Mongols on my own, but they have that many numbers it's difficult. You have to let them take a few settlements, build up a few armies then strike out. It's imperative to have good foot archers against the Mongols, or it's game over.

 

Just called another game store at the mall, and they have it in stock! It's a bit of a further drive, but I'll pick it up on the way home from work. Honestly, it's probably better this way anyway. I have a feeling I'm going to get totally absorbed into this game, and having a weekend to devote to it is good. Especially considering Mrs. Idiot is going to a candle party tomorrow afternoon, it means hours of uninterrupted gaming for me.

 

Nice one happy gaming , I want this game so bloody much but I'll just have to wait until I get a new computer.

 

Aye, let me know what you think Aldeth!

I'm having a lot of fun with custom battles at the minute. Just throwing some units together and see what happens . It's actually a very good way of finding out what counters what best.

I just finished a battle with an army full of longbowmen and an army full of war elephants. Heh, was interesting! Those elephants sure don't like flame arrows...

 

Is Ireland a playable nation?

 

Sadly no, it's a rebel settlement at the start of the game. It's also usually my 2nd addition . With the English you need control of the British Isles before you can start worrying about the French!

 

Oh well, maybe in a future expansion pack, like the Viking Invasion for the first MTW. Still, the game looks cool.