Powerful Governments

[ArtistofWarfare]

Hey all...

After all of this time I've been finally digging into m2tw heavily this weekend and will continue to today.

I have been reading sites, looking at unit stats, and playing dozens of custom battles in all different scenarios. For my first faction that I campaign with, I have narrowed down my choices to either Venice or France.

Now to the question: Sure, I have all sorts of information on regular army, artillery, navy etc...but what I'm wondering lastly is about government etc.

What I mean by government is things like: Events leading to boosted stats/traits within the kingdom, faction unique buildings, overall quality of generated generals throughout the campaign as well as historic character appearances, etc.

Anyone have any information on things like this in regards to France, Venice, or really anyone else noteworthy?

I would appreciate it and it would probably develop into an interesting read...

Thanks.

[pevergreen]

AFAIK, nothing of factions really influences what the generals are like. In fact AFAIK, none of those things actually occur or happen etc.

[PBI]

I guess it helps being a Catholic faction, since you can send generals on Crusade for lots of cheap Chivalry. High-chiv governors make a BIG difference to settlement growth, so they are very handy in getting a castle to grow into a fortress and citadel more quickly, giving you an edge in technology.

Regarding unique buildings, most factions have buildings that only they and a few other factions can build. Venice get Art Galleries and Merchant Banks, which I believe improve happiness and trade respectively. France I believe get the Conservatory which improves happiness and the Tourney field which gives you better cavalry (and is supposed to give you free upkeep in castles, though this doesn't work).

Other factions get different buildings, the Muslim factions in particular get some good ones.

[The New Che Guevara]

The Moors get the Bishmarin(?) which is basically a hospital and you can upgrade it into a Grand Bishmarin which kinda helps when the plague comes around and keeps the population happy. The Muslims also get Racing Tracks which mirror the circus Maximus from Rome. That's as much as I know. I saw what the french had in Marseille when I conquered it but I cant remember.

[Alsn]

To sum things up, there really arent any "special" characters or generals that you get during the game with any faction, the major difference between factions is simply what generals/settlements you get from the start as well as the buildings and units you can build/recruit.

As far as getting good generals its all up to you(and luck), read kobal's guides in the m2tw guide section if you want to learn more about how to get good generals/governors.

Edit: Also, both catholic and muslim factions can get lots of chivalry from crusades, the only difference being that muslim factions get jihads and catholic ones get crusades but they function in effectively the same way. Byzantium and Russia cannot call a crusade(since they are orthodox) nor can they call jihads(since theyre not muslims) which is generally seen as an increase in difficulty by most players(jihads/crusades are crazy overpowered).

[ArtistofWarfare]

I guess it helps being a Catholic faction, since you can send generals on Crusade for lots of cheap Chivalry. High-chiv governors make a BIG difference to settlement growth, so they are very handy in getting a castle to grow into a fortress and citadel more quickly, giving you an edge in technology.

Regarding unique buildings, most factions have buildings that only they and a few other factions can build. Venice get Art Galleries and Merchant Banks, which I believe improve happiness and trade respectively. France I believe get the Conservatory which improves happiness and the Tourney field which gives you better cavalry (and is supposed to give you free upkeep in castles, though this doesn't work).

Other factions get different buildings, the Muslim factions in particular get some good ones.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about...

Faction specific buildings are the stepping stone to powerful government imo.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the French also experience a piety increase rather early in the campaign? Or is that MTW that I'm thinking of...?

[HopAlongBunny]

this might help: http://totalwar.honga.net/ (if you haven't spotted it yet :)

[ArtistofWarfare]

Yeah I had seen Honga's site last week and posted in his thread...

Last night I was looking over that very site a bit more and noticed that indeed- It has every single faction specific building included in one of the sections.

It really is an amazing compilation of information and will help to answer so many questions floating around out there...