Medieval 2: Total War Re-release Party

[Gregoshi]

The Org is going old school on May 15 and having a Medieval 2: Total War Re-release Party! So grab your installations disks or re-download the game if it is no longer on your hard drive and get ready for a trip down Memory Lane. If you haven't played M2TW before, here's your chance to play along with veteran players and find out what you missed. So check your favourite retail or online shop and grab a copy now.

New Total War releases are a community event. Everyone is playing the game and talking about it. However, once a new Total War game comes out, playing the older games becomes more of a solitary experience. The Re-release Party hopes to change all that. By targeting one game, we can play it together again - sharing our stories, strategies, tactics, questions, answers, AARs, and online match-ups once again in the M2TW forums. Whether you are re-visiting an "old friend" or playing M2TW for the first time, let's get ready to battle like it is the year 1080.

May 15 is a soft start date. You are free to begin play anytime before or after that date. The goal is to have as many people as possible playing at the same time. M2TW's expansions and all mods are fair game for this event. So prepare your armies and your computer for battle! We'll see you there.

[Gregoshi]

Feel free to post here if you plan to participate.

I'll be joining, of course. I've only ever played the demo for M2TW since the game was too much for my ancient computer at the time. So consider me a n00b.

[easytarget]

Ha! Over the last month I've been having my own private re-release party here, I never played it the first time either, so naturally I'm having a blast, but can't wait for more players to ask questions of!

Incoherencel is making a let's play of England running SS6.4, so I've been bugging him with questions, but man it would be nice to have some more folks!

[Kadagar_AV]

Ha! Over the last month I've been having my own private re-release party here, I never played it the first time either, so naturally I'm having a blast, but can't wait for more players to ask questions of!

Incoherencel is making a let's play of England running SS6.4, so I've been bugging him with questions, but man it would be nice to have some more folks!

I'm in.

Let's direct everyone to the existing M2TW board or create a new one?

My hint for the day: It really really REALLY pays off to have your knights line up and charge properly.

Do it wrong and your knights won't be worth ****. Do it right and you will saw through the enemy like a hot knife in butter.

The general with his knights can easily cut through 4-5 enemy formations during the time of a normal battle. This unit you have access to from the start, USE it.

Remember to hit from behind or the sides though...

Heck, you can charge straight on against spears and still win, but it will be costly.

I have no idea how many times my heavy cavalry saved the day.

[Gregoshi]

We can just use this existing board. Glad to have you aboard Kad. And thanks for the tip.

[Kadagar_AV]

Hint 2:

It might be a bug, or actually mimicking real medieval warfare... But it's all about sieges.

Have one army stack with cavalry and troops, and another one or two for sieges.

The first should be whatever mobile stuff you have, the latter should be rock-throwing-thingys coupled with slow but steady infantry.

Use the mobile stack to scare away any enemy force, use the assault stack to actually capture stuff.

EDIT: cavalry are absolute rubbish in city-fighting. As much as they are game-savers on the open fields, they absolutely are rubbish in street fights.

[Kadagar_AV]

Hint 3: Jihads or Crusades is daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn powerful. Never ever ever hesitate to start one.

A small hint is to make friends with the pope if playing a non-islamic faction, that way you will have 100% rate of whatever crusade you start. You can then direct the crusade to whatever enemy you have.

Play your cards right this includes catholic factions.

The benefit of crusade troops is that you can pick up extremely cheap mercenaries along the way - crusade troops (some are AWESOME). Also, you pay low upkeep (1/10?) for crusading stacks. Also, if a stack actually take the objective they will all get some extra experience bars. Did I mention you can get extra crusader specific items that just ROCKS? If not, I just told you so. "The spear of Antioch" comes to mind.

Seriously, we should get AskThePizzaGuy in here... I know all there is to functionally know about this game, he holds that as well as every tidbit of cheese you could possibly get.

I remember a post he made about besieging.. He used a light cavalry to lure the enemies out of the castle. He then took them to the maps edge. He then charged back to the center, starting the 2 min timer of automatic default of holding the square - the enemy troops were to far away to get back in time.

I don't do cheese... But that doesn't mean I don't bow to the cheese master!! :bow:

[Kadagar_AV]

Hint 4:

Whatever general you have, have him join the crusade / jihad at the turn where you take the objective. That way him and all his troops will get the crusader/jihad bonus.

I'll be here till we close, if you have questions - don't be shy. I'm not on par with ATPG, but I know the game :)

[Kadagar_AV]

Hint 5: only use one city for the brothel line of tech. Also keep your generals clear of this city.

The brothel line only works for getting spies and assassins. If you park a general there, he will get negative traits such as alcoholism.

It's not all bad, mind you. He is also more prone to sire kids.

Story of my life ;)

[Major Robert Dump]

I never stopped playing. Doing a Venice campaign right now. Are you guys sure you want to face my handgunner fury?

[testhero]

Some Kind fellow posted this hint; Select your crusading army and hit Alt-A to restore their doubled movement after adding spies, assassins or diplomats to the stack.
The spy etc don't have the double crusade movment attribute in their file for some reason so it cuts the stacks movement too their max

[Kadagar_AV]

Some Kind fellow posted this hint; Select your crusading army and hit Alt-A to restore their doubled movement after adding spies, assassins or diplomats to the stack.
The spy etc don't have the double crusade movment attribute in their file for some reason so it cuts the stacks movement too their max

That's brilliant!!

[Empire*Of*Media]

excuse i did not geit it! its for online gaming?!

it will be nice when Rome II really sucks and its a piece of Crap!

[Myth]

I'm in of course. Away from my PC now but will be back on Wednesday. Im going to Copenhagen after, and then on some personal stuff, but i will start a campaign and do a report with screens on it. I will share all my knowledve of the game. Anyone have any particular faction or mod in mind? Also pinging LooseCannon1, SilverShield and Nightbringer

[easytarget]

All of you who have previously played a good bit of MTW2 don't be shy about jumping in with suggestions or answers on the threads I've already started here with stuff I've run across playing a campaign so far (and thank you in advance). I seem to run into a seemingly endless array of questions:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?147136-Medieval-2-Questions

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?147242-Can-t-wait-for-some-more-player-company%21

As you can see in the second one I've taken to embedded pictures as well so I'm a bit less boring (trying to entice responses, haha).

[Nightbringer]

I'll participate for sure. Never really stopped playing to be honest. I cant throw up some stuff about my current england game, or maybe start up a new one.

Also, this would be a great time for new players to try out the multiplayer aspects of things, and I would be glad to help organize some new hotseat games in the throne room. We could even try an all noob game if enough new players come around.

[LooseCannon1]

Vanilla M2TW? :laugh4: I don't think I've played that since January 2007. But because of mods and hotseats, it's easily the best game CA ever put out. I can't even comment on easytarget's threads or Kadagav_AV's hints since I can't remember the original game. Except to say Brothels? We Build Those EVERYWHERE (including castles):2thumbsup: (The traits file had to be fixed first)

I'm in..

[Gregoshi]

Vanilla M2TW? :laugh4:
This event is just to get as many people as possible to have a shared community experience with an older TW game. You may play any version with any mods you so desire. The Re-release party is a very informal event.

Oh, and welcome aboard LooseCannon1.

[Nem]

Well for me everything after MTW VI was rubbish for MP.

[Double A]

Gah, why is everyone trying to remind me that EB2 isn't out yet?

[Ituralde]

Medieval 2 is easily the most memorable Total War game for me, especially when it comes to the .org and the interactions it spawned here.
I never tried it out on my current computer, so I'm curious whether I'll be able to run it with full details!

Count me in!

[KingFergus]

Hello everyone! New to posting but have been a lurker for a long time. I recently started playing MTWII again after watching Vikings on History. Just for those curious, I'm running this game from the original CD on Windows 8 with no problems at all.

[Gregoshi]

I guess it isn't appropriate to say "Welcome" but thanks for de-lurking KingFergus. :bow:

That is comforting to know. I have the downloaded version and haven't launched it yet, probably this weekend. However, I am running Windows 8 was wondering how M2TW might run on it.

[Myth]

I'm planning on starting a Crusader States campaign in Stainless Steel 6.4 Late Era. Plenty of muslims around to Crusade upon. Lots of rich coastal settlements, and an incredible roster of knights.

I never actually completed Vanilla as well, and I've not encountered the Mongols and Timurids. I think it's time. I'm torn between good ol' England or the Byzantines.

Reminder to those who will be playing Vanilla - the two handed bug means that two handed swords and halberds will be useless in lead battles. Better go with stuff like Armoured Swordsmen or Dismounted Feudal Knights.

While on the subject of Medieval 2, I heartily propose a hotseat or two. Nothing makes Medieval 2 shine more than waging war against fellow human generals in the grand campaign!

[Gregoshi]

Me thinks I should do some thinking on which faction to play first.

Myth, thanks for the heads up on the two handed bug. Have at it with the hot seat proposal and include a link with info for those unfamiliar with hot seat games.

[Spoonska]

I'm definitely up for this. I never really got into Medieval 2. I might have completed 1 campaign total in that game. This is gonna be cool.

[Myth]

Started a vanilla game as the Byzantines. Forgot how slow armies are and how quickly buildings are built. Also - archers rule in vanilla.

Quick tip: make sure to milk the AI for any coin you can. Sell trade for 2000. Sell map info for 800. Sell alliances, sell anything you can. I made about 5000 gold just from the Turks (whom I attacked anyway) and Hungary in my initial turns, thus securing a steady infrastructure budget for trade buildings.

Also, keep track of how much income buildings provide. Warehouses, stone roads and mines can surprise you. Settle merchants on resources your faction values. it's corruption free income.

[Kadagar_AV]

Started a vanilla game as the Byzantines. Forgot how slow armies are and how quickly buildings are built. Also - archers rule in vanilla.

Quick tip: make sure to milk the AI for any coin you can. Sell trade for 2000. Sell map info for 800. Sell alliances, sell anything you can. I made about 5000 gold just from the Turks (whom I attacked anyway) and Hungary in my initial turns, thus securing a steady infrastructure budget for trade buildings.

Also, keep track of how much income buildings provide. Warehouses, stone roads and mines can surprise you. Settle merchants on resources your faction values. it's corruption free income.

It pays off to send merchants to the sweet spots.

Even with Denmark I got merchants down (by boat) to the very south west of the map (africa), where there are quite some nice trade items.

If I remember it right, you can also build a fort and have more than one merchant use the same spot... But now we are deep into cheese territory :)

[Vlixes]

Did you know that GameSpy servers are going down this month?

[easytarget]

Yep, been seeing discussions and lamenting about that in every TW forum. A reminder that you should not hitch your game to 3rd party support for any core component you want to continue to exist long term. One would think the issues encountered with the launcher from earlier TW games like MTW2 would have caused CA to learn that lesson too, but then of course you'd be wrong as they reintroduced it in Rome 2.

[HopAlongBunny]

The only lasting memory I have of MTW2 is:
Camels!
Camels with guns!!

What's not to love :)

[Double A]

I like coaxing the AI into splitting up their stupid spear stack into a bunch of lone units and then charging each one in turn from every side with my cavalry stack. You can't do that crap in Shogun 2.

[jackfruitguy69]

yeahhhhh im gonna try the moors again. secure iberia til the pyrennes and go amok as far as constantinople and georgia. camel gunners, granadine jinetes, christian guards, urban militia, dismounted christian guards, lamtuna spearmen.

[Vuk]

I'm in.

[NapoleanShogunCaesar]

Medieval 2 was a great game. I think I saw my disk the other day. One thing it had that was really great was a "hot seat" mode where two or more people could take turns on the campaign map against each other. If there is an online version, it would be fun to play the strategic part of the game against another person.

I will definitely be checking in here and in RTW2 as the STW2 forum is a little bit lonely.

[easytarget]

One day to go...:hide:

[Vuk]

Well, I work an 8 hour shift at my home store, have an hour break, then work an 8 hour shift at a neighboring store tomorrow (and I just found out about it today), so I am gonna break into MIITW a little early and post my 'first impressions'. :P

[easytarget]

Just finished my first full campaign as the English and it was as much fun as I've had in a Total War campaign in quite some time.

Now, to do it again!

[Ailfertes]

http://www.twcenter.net/w/images/a/ab/EB2.png

To honour the Re-release Party of Medieval 2: Total War organised by totalwar.org, the Europa Barbarorum II team decided to divulge some details from their upcoming mod. I made a little AAR about gameplay in the pre-beta phase.
The AAR can be found on the following page: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?147288-Re-Release-Subject-An-Europa-Barbarorum-II-AAR-Roma

Enjoy the Party!

[easytarget]

So, I begin a new one as the French this time! And I intend for a change of pace to fight all battles this go through.

So far at turn 15 I've grabbed 3 rebel provinces and form alliances with papal state and HRE so I can turn my attention to those english speaking peoples...

[LooseCannon1]

I could only spend a little time yesterday actually playing M2TW. I played about half of my hotseat turn against the AI in Clash of Gods while thinking of ways to destroy Nightbringer. And that half took a bit of time with all the battles-almost 2 hours. Hotseats are the way more fun way of playing M2TW. Few are as intense as CoG3 is but if anybody's interested sure we could get a new game going in the Throne Room. It's way more challenging to play against humans.

[Sp4]

Someone recommend me a good mod for this game (M2). I have the Kingdoms Expansion from some Steam sale at some point and I tried out the big LotR one but I didn't like it. I keep reading good things about Stainless Steel?

[Myth]

Someone recommend me a good mod for this game (M2). I have the Kingdoms Expansion from some Steam sale at some point and I tried out the big LotR one but I didn't like it. I keep reading good things about Stainless Steel?

Stainless Steel rules. Try it.

[The Outsider]

I would really love to join in but Im trying to finish my bloody Msc dessertation :stare: Its pissing me off soo bad. Hopefully I should be able to finish by mid-june, if you guys are around then, I will make sure to join. Nonetheless, its good to see such a marry gathering :medievalcheers:

[easytarget]

I'm sure I'll still be playing, and still asking dumb questions!

The only thing coming out that will stop me from playing this is:

EB2 and/or No Man's Sky (which ever comes out 1st).

[Myth]

Okay guys, we need one M2TW general ready to get his hands dirty with a hotseat. We need a new player (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?145278-Sword-and-Cross&p=2053592646&viewfull=1#post2053592646) for the faction of Sicilly in Sword and Cross. We are using Stainless Steel 6.4 Late Era. All the info is in the thread, and you can also check out my hotseat guide stickied in the Throne Room to learn the ropes of hotseat play.

[KingFergus]

So I started a Long Campaign as Scotland on H/H. I immediately sent all units and two generals south to York beating England to the punch. England diverted their army to Caernarvon. I then sent my troops plus one general to my cog for a little voyage toward London knowing there would be little resistance with England's army off to the west. I narrowly escaped having a naval battle with a rebel fleet and began to storm London. London fell and I killed the enemy king.

The English army set for Caernarvon retreated to Nottingham where they were besieged quite quickly by my forces while my King and some units/mercs set out to take Caernarvon. I decided to starve the Nottingham army while my besieging equipment was ready, this also allowed me to recruit some mercs. To my surprise, I only lost about 18% of my army in this battle (England had almost a full stack) but Nottingham fell and Scotland controlled the mainland with only Inverness and Dublin to take from the rebels. England has been relegated to Caen.

I've stopped here for the time being. My plan is to send forces West (Spain) and Northeast (Denmark) to expand Scotland's reach. I'm undecided if I want to eliminate England right away since I'm spread a bit thin right now and do not think I could effectively maintain land South of London (Caen, Rennes). I hope to update again in a few days but wanted to post before I forgot my great start to my Scottish campaign.

[easytarget]

Well, my 2nd campaign has come to a successful close with the silly french speaking peoples conquering all of Europe. Great fun. Fought every battle which proved a good deal more time consuming than I had expected.

Interestingly I left the English alone, I just build a navy and blockaded them along w/ the Scots and neither made it off the island, well actually what precipitated it was a stack of English landing and then just camping outside Caen, not sure why, but I just never can leave that alone, so destroyed them and then bottled them up for remainder of the campaign.

Near the end got a bit of a scare in Poland/Russia, having never directly encountered the Timurids, boy do they show up en masse with some heavily chevron'd generals and units, fortunately I had an almost equal number (about 6 or 7 full stacks) in the vicinity on the march to capture the requisite number of provinces so I parked a few of them at the border and this apparently convinced them to go terrorize the Denmark, Poland and Russia (which was fine by me since I was doing the same thing).

Great fun, and now, the debate on who to play next begins...

[easytarget]

Ah, excellent, look forward to hearing how it goes with the Scots, as I've mentioned in another thread I'm part Scot and feel silly it didn't occur to me to play them first, instead of what now will turn out to be 3rd! Ah well, as the saying goes, 3rd time is the charm.

[easytarget]

Ah, cool. It is refreshing to see the AI do some smart moves. I've encountered that same move you did with Denmark when I was playing as England, and with the same result as I had left the island thinly defended anticipating only the occasional rebel troubles and they landed and took a couple places from me I then had to move an army back over there to deal with. I thought it was rather cool actually.

Just as I find the game mechanic of throwing in the additional on-going consideration of what the Pope makes of your activities an interesting throttle on what could in the middle game turn into a steam roll otherwise.


All in all, there's a cohesiveness of vision to this one just as there is in Shogun 2 that creates an over all game experience for the player that makes sense. Unlike Rome 2 that feels like it was designed by sub-committees who never talked to each other and then it was all bolted together and shipped.

I've had a blast playing as the French and English so far and look forward to my next campaign, I've taken a medieval breather with a campaign as Oda in Shogun 2 at the moment.

So, are you going to have another go as the Scots?

[Myth]

My Byzantine campaign is hectic. I've started conquering the Levant and the Dalmatian coast. However, I'm at war with the Yellow Death (Egypt), Venice, Sicilly and Hungary. And I preemptively sank a Moorish boat with a fullstack of troops, that was sniffing around the Athenian coast. If it weren't for the awesome archers and horse archers the Byz get (and the General's Bodyguards) I'd have lost it by now.

[KingFergus]

Here's an update on my Scottish campaign. I left off pondering whether to eliminate England (who has been relegated to Caen) or send my forces Northeast (Denmark) or West (Spain). I decided on attacking Leon but surprisingly noticed that Bordeaux was still controlled by rebels and quickly made a UTurn and took Bordeaux with ease.

So where do I go from here? I lost a race to Toulouse and was severely out-manned by the French. I decided to ally with the French so I could concentrate on taking out Spain and Portugal without fear of the French attacking Bordeaux. The French had their hands full with Milan anyhow.

I made the mistake of trying to scoop up both Pamplona AND Zaragoza over the span of two turns. I had no idea that Portugal had already taken Valencia and that was where the majority of their troops had been. Makes obvious sense as to why Pamplona and Zaragoza were lightly protected. Needless to say, Portugal took both Pamplona and Zaragoza back.

Back at the drawing board in Bordeaux and my alliance with the French is in tatters because I MAY have assassinated their heir and got greedy attempting to eliminate the King. Got caught with my hand in the cookie jar!

So with the French wanting retribution for the death of their heir, I'm stuck in a deep hole with little options. Do I strategically take on Portugal, wage war and fend off the French, or abandon Bordeaux? I'm honestly leaning towards attempting to negotiate a truce with the French. My hope is that they will trade Rennes for Bordeaux and then work on eliminating the English.

[AnthoniusII]

M2TW had never died. In fact more than 4 years earlier i 1st posted in a mod of this game with the name Medieval 2 Total Realism.
Back then there were not the needed tools or the expirience to make things that are "common" today.
But new animations, new tools new taxture working technics offer often a result better even than Rome 2 new game.
In TGC mod we have new animations such new crossbow (not weeled arbalest like Banzai kindly offered to community couple years before) animations , lance waving banners for knights , new horses etc...
Few years back (when M2TR started to develop) no one could ever imagine something like this.

http://youtu.be/GZqtx-HLNmY
Or horsemen units with atleast 9 horses in each unit!

http://youtu.be/zBpGkwge_i0

Not to mention IWTE tool...and that teams wonderfull help to modding community.

M2TW vanilla game could easily re-newed with a new animation pack and more easthetic units/textures to find the real glory of that game.

[edyzmedieval]

I've done a re-release myself for M2TW, playing it quite a bit in the past days. I've fired up a Novgorod campaign in M2TW Teutonic and I'm having a blast - the unit roster is spectacular, particularly on cavalry. A bit light on infantry but a good mix of spearmen + Boyar Sons should be enough.