Wes' Med Mod

[invalidopcode]

Despite all of the hoopla on this board, I *just* finally got around to installing Wes' Med Mod. All I can say is wow It improves the gameplay so much that it is like playing an entirely new game.

Are there any strategy guides out their for playing with this mod?

Along those lines, with the inclusion of the Homelands idea, is there any reason not to sack and burn conquered territories that are not part of your Homelands? I can see why you might want to keep some of the econmic stuff around, but why would you want to keep the advanced structures since you cannot use them? What do you guys normally do?

Also, I must of missed this in the readme but playing as the Danes, I could not move my ships past Portugal. Why does this happen?

In any event, I am glad I finally installed the mod and look forward to the next version...

[Xiphias]

Medmod removes the straights of gibralter to break up large trade empires.

[Kristaps]

Quote[/b] (invalidopcode @ June 03 2004,10:06)]Despite all of the hoopla on this board, I *just* finally got around to installing Wes' Med Mod. All I can say is wow It improves the gameplay so much that it is like playing an entirely new game.

Are there any strategy guides out their for playing with this mod?

Along those lines, with the inclusion of the Homelands idea, is there any reason not to sack and burn conquered territories that are not part of your Homelands? I can see why you might want to keep some of the econmic stuff around, but why would you want to keep the advanced structures since you cannot use them? What do you guys normally do?

Also, I must of missed this in the readme but playing as the Danes, I could not move my ships past Portugal. Why does this happen?

In any event, I am glad I finally installed the mod and look forward to the next version...
In the few Wes-Mod games I've played I've noticed the AI factions quickly pushed off their homelands (by other AI factions), which generally results in a climax characterized by vanilla spear-men dominated AI hordes marching back and forth (in the Early): an exception to this would be the Scandinavian factions.

As to military buildings in non-homelands: BURN THEM :) An exception would be seige equipment workshops: those are unique per faction (unless you capture another faction's workshop) and not homeland specific. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif

Yeah... post 400...

[ah_dut]

May I say that medmod is a lot deeper and harder. It involves not being able to build even semi decent troops away from home so is excellent micro training

[katank]

yep, the siege stuff is good.

capturing and extra foundry or two can help you enormously.

I think some other unique buildings can also be captured like title giving ones IIRC

[cutepuppy]

Quote[/b] (katank @ June 04 2004,02:33)]I think some other unique buildings can also be captured like title giving ones IIRC
Yes, you can, but the only effect they have is a decrease in mercenary magnetism (unless you haven't build them yourself, off course).
The buildings that certainly will be destroyed are the ones that you can't build, like churches or baronial court if you're muslim or mosques if you're christian.

[Ellesthyan]

And of course gunsmiths and foundries can be captured.

I usually burn down all the military buildings after the early era, as by then only peasants can be created in non-homeland countries... In the one and only game I actually achieved the end (English, normal, Medmod) without stopping early, I had places like Lorraine, Burgundy, Ile de la France, etc. all built up to create hordes of spies, assasins, and bishops http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-devilish.gif , but before that I had their economy fully upgraded. Even with all my lands fully upgraded to 80% farms, the best merchants and the atlantic ocean as my "mare nostrum", I still had money problems. In medmod the A.I. actually tries to win so you better try hard too Trade becomes soon no reliable source; your enemies have many ships, and you can't trade between the different oceans. Therefore you'll have to get a strong agriculture. And that's where you've got those next to useless colonies for http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[katank]

that is fairly true so you need to max farming even in places that can't quite justify it as the AI navies make trade even more fickle.

agents are also recommended for loyalty purposes to reduce upkeep etc.

[Ghostmonkey]

What provinces are considered homeland provinces? Just the ones you start with or can provinces captured from rebels also become homeland provinces?

[katar]

Quote[/b] ]What provinces are considered homeland provinces?

the ones you start out with and some of the surrounding provinces as well.

example: i`m currently playing as england and can also build units in scotland, ireland and wales.

i can also build certain units in freisland, flanders and brittany, but with the exception of capturing a province with an intact siege weapon facility that is as good as it gets for land units.

shipyards are not so restricted, if you build the facilities you can build the ships (not sure if there are any restrictions on them at all).

so as the game progresses and you expand, your supply lines grow and supplying troops can be a problem, you can get around this by bribing other armies and hiring mercs.

while more difficult, i found it to be a good addition to the game. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[katank]

you can look in the charts and readmes folder.

otherwise, you can only build low level units.

the AI will often kick each other out of their homelands and have epic spearmen battles.

it's funny to see them try to recreate phalanx hoplite combat in medieval times with junk units.

after I'm sufficiently amused, I kill them.

capturing a foundry intact is insanely powerful though and I've had 3 foundries before and it was pretty sweet.

mucho cannon

[Ghostmonkey]

Quote[/b] (katar @ June 08 2004,22:10)]
Quote[/b] ]What provinces are considered homeland provinces?

the ones you start out with and some of the surrounding provinces as well.

example: i`m currently playing as england and can also build units in scotland, ireland and wales.

i can also build certain units in freisland, flanders and brittany, but with the exception of capturing a province with an intact siege weapon facility that is as good as it gets for land units.

shipyards are not so restricted, if you build the facilities you can build the ships (not sure if there are any restrictions on them at all).

so as the game progresses and you expand, your supply lines grow and supplying troops can be a problem, you can get around this by bribing other armies and hiring mercs.

while more difficult, i found it to be a good addition to the game. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif
So essentially after I get the provinces surrounding me its all just slash and burn from there?

[katank]

look in the charts and readmes for which is military.

I suggest slash and burn except for economic buildings and things like foundries which are otherwise unique.

also, buildings like religious or title ones you should also keep but burn all the military ones by all means.

[Ghostmonkey]

Quote[/b] (katank @ June 09 2004,18:01)]look in the charts and readmes for which is military.

I suggest slash and burn except for economic buildings and things like foundries which are otherwise unique.

also, buildings like religious or title ones you should also keep but burn all the military ones by all means.
Finally, I hated worrying about which crucial military buildings my forces would destroy. Now that it doesn't matter anymore I can worry less and pillage more. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/medievalcheers.gif

[katank]

true.

pillage=fun + profits.

razing stuff is good but if crucial foundry province etc, still try and get it intact.

cannot emphasis how nice extra foundries are.

[The_678]

I might finally try this too. The new units, lack of straits and stuff seeemed kinda blah to me. I had no real intention of trying it again, cuz the one time i did i had no idea waht anything was.

But now that i have heard of this Homeland thing it sounds great Once i get the game back from my friend i will download and try this.

[Puzz3D]

Ghostmonkey,

I played an English MedMod v3.12, conquer the whole map campaign, and I was able to train mounted knights in Palestine after I captured it and eventually a good spear inf unit and hospitaller mounted knights there as well, but this was very late in the game. I had turcopoles being trained in a couple of mideast provinces as well. I was also able to train handgunners and arqs in Switzerland. I did get a lot of units by bribing rebel armies.

I had a lost game at one point because the Danes must have had 300 ships in the North Atlantic and I had none. If I went to war with them, my king would have been cut off in England, and I would probably have had massive revolts on the mainland. However, eventually the Dannish king died without an heir and all their ships disappeared which saved me. I didn't make the same mistake in the Mediterrainean, and maintained a large navy there as I went along North Africa.

The Mongols came and took about half the map and it looked to be an insurmountable obstacle to winning, but I was eventually able to kill the Khan and a couple of heirs in battles. The faction was eliminated, and I bribed as many former Mongol armies as I could before they re-emerged. This effectively broke the Mongols power, and it was just a race then to get all the remaining provinces before I ran out of turns in 1453. I finished the game in 1450.

I was able to consistently expand my territory throught the game, but it was slow going. I never destroyed any buildings as I didn't plan on giving any territory back. Although I did have a few setbacks they were minor, and I was always able to counterattack quickly since I had pretty good depth of forces along the front line provinces. I couldn't train a lot of units in one year, and tended to maintain as large an army as I could while still having a positive income flow per year of about 1000 florins, but I often dropped below that figure. I would have to periodically stop expanding and build up my economy. A few battles of attrition worked nicely to reduce the overall size of the army I had to maintain to get my income back on track.

[Quokka]

You should read the units spreadsheet very carefully. Most of the time more than one faction can build a unit type, especially the missile units or Saracens for the muslims. These units can be built outside of your homelands thus freeing up homeland provinces for heavier unit types. The same goes for ships. The Catholics can also use the units of the Crusader Kingdoms throughout the Holy Land, so should destroy nothing there.

The Homelands are also listed in the Charts and can change from era to era so learn them also. Just because you can't build anything in Early doesn't mean that will be the case in High or Late. The opposite is also true, just because you CAN build in Early doesn't mean you can in High or Late. This mostly affects the HRE, English and Russians factions but is not limited to them.

[BDC]

Anyone know what's happened to this mod? There was some discussion of a newer version, which faded out.

[cutepuppy]

I guess Wes is still working on MM 4.0, he has some problems with some of the newer factions.
For more info, you can take a look at the medmod 4.0 topic in the dungeon.