Answers from an E3 visitor or the King Stephen Thread

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

In this thread, i will copy and paste the info that King Stephen is giving us at the com. He had the chance to visit E3 and talk to Michael De Plater for an hour. On his second visit he took a pen and some paper so here his some real info:

(Please note i have not taken the time to ask his permission before posting this, i'm too excited, by i will E-mail him begging for his forgivness)

Time periods of our game:

Early Era starts 1087
-Almohads
-Byzantine
-Egyptians
-English
-French
-Germans
-Italians
-Polish
-Spanish
-Turkish

High Era starts 1205

Late Era starts 1321

The High and Late Era will have all 12 playable factions available for the player therefore Danes and Russians join the listed factions above.

The only way to play through the whole 400 year is that you have to start in the Early Era and play through the game . This mean however that you will have only 10 factions available to play with, as listed above.


INTRODUCTION MOVIE
It looked very cool! The floor was very loud so I barely heard the music and the voice acting but the music was similar to what we already know, the voice acting sounded deep and scary however I couldn't make out completely what has been said. Overall very satisfied about it!

The first few screens of the game is very much shogun look alike, simple and objective. We will have Historic Campaign,Historic Battles,Costume Battles,Multiplayer etc. nothing new here.

When you choose the Campaigns you will go to the next screen where you can read about the different eras of the game (Early,High,Late).After you choose one of them than you go to the factions (here also you can read about the facts of each playable faction. When you choose your faction then (again) you can read about the ruling king of your kingdom. Then you start the game!

STRATEGY SCREEN OR MAP
Now here is where the goodies start.
First you can zoom in and out of the map very nicely unlike in STW. You are able to zoom in so close that you can see only one or part of your provinces. On the other end you can zoom out so you can see almost half of Europe. I don't want to say anything about the map itself because you all see it already on the Internet.

Play on the Strategy Map.
When you start your game you will have a given army, King and few other personnel depending on your choice of faction to begin with. The interesting thing is that you will ( each province) have the titles without a actual person. So when you start you have to decide who will get those titles (for example Duke of Wales) , now during the gameplay you can strip those same titles off from the person if you dislike them and give it to some one else. Your Ambassador is the one who can give or take titles away. Also every person will have their own uniqe "character" after you give them the title. Character RPG kicks in here, I think!

The strategy map have a new "color code" feature. Namely you have three color to watch for Green,Yellow and Red. Green mean everybody happy in the given province, Yellow mean people unhappy about their life and Red (yes you guess it right) mean the rebellion is on the horizon.

We played the High period with Corey and even I saw only few turns the info you get is much more than we had in STW.
Few things about the non-playable factions: they are very much alive in the game you can have diplomacy and trade dispute with them as well as the playable's. Even after few turn Hungary invaded Serbia, the next turn the Serb rebelled against it, the next turn I saw Hungary pull in a big army to cool down the rebellion. Be aware of the Germans, apparently even in the Medieval Times after few turns they archived technological superiority in Europe. Movement of your armies and people just like in STW step to the next province or travel with boat to the province which have a pier.

Trade
Ok the trade will be handed to those who control the given trade route. Now if you ally with a guy who control the trading rout ( I think) you can have your trading vessels in the same area. Warships will controls the seas. Trading vessels only trade.

Pope
The Papal States wont be playable however he has great influence on all the Christians. You can take the Papal S. provinces and put a puppet Pope in the place of the old one. However only the Pope can call for a Crusades and only with his signature can give you the right to set out for a Crusade.

Crusades
To lunch one, after you build a Crusading army then you have to build a given building which is the Chapter House and then you have to have the Pope who will approve or disapprove your idea. To get to the Holly land your army simple walk or take a boat ride. Oh and you can call a Jihad also if you like!

Assassins
To get a Assassin who will be pretty much like our Ninja in STW you have to build a Tavern. They can kill anybody depend on their level and the level of the target. To kill a King is going to be very hard with the Assassin

There was simply not enough time to go through all the features of the strategy map however I saw Princes got to old to get marry countries sending treaties even non-playables and so for ..................... you find out the rest when you buy the game, I don't want to take the fun away from you. Anyway if you have a question about this part of the game: Shoot!

To be continued with the battle map ...........


Battle Map

First the battle map screen is partially customizable which mean you can drag the radar screen where ever you like on you monitor. There is one new feature comes with the radar screen, in the bottom of it there is a time adjustment button so you can play with normal speed (left) or you can speed up your battle as much as you like (pull it right). This will make it easier for the player to speed up those long marches or the castle gate attacks, just to name a few.

When you start the very first thing you do is, decide what group formation you will play.This is totally NEW (I love this part) each faction will get almost a dozen (WOW) classical historic group formation unique to that faction (I saw only one faction, I think the Turks, and I saw like Scorpion formation and the other ten more next to it. This is the only part I didn't have the time to write it down because it's so many of them.

Battle screen
The battle screen set up pretty much like STW as we knew it already .

Single unit formations are the same as STW ( close,loose and wedge). However I must add something mind-blowing here when you set them to loose you get a completely unsymmetrical staggered group unlike STW where the computer just simply pull the men apart from each other, here you will get man stand closer or further from each other even in a single unit. Very realistic I think.

During battles you have the option to change the group formation again or put your men in to few other formation however the formations here are different from the one you get at the beginning of the battle (historic). The group formations are:
-Single
-Sorted single
-Double line
-Sorted double
-Missile first
-Foot first
-Cavalry first
-Colume

Let me mention the zooming feature of the battle map. One word: awesome. You can zoom in as ground level , head heights of the troops, the castle looked so huge with this one , I felt like I standing next to the soldiers. On the other end you can zoom up high so you can look it the whole picture of the battle and it's progress.

Few words on Castles
You have Keep, Forth,Castle,Citadel and Fortress.
There are no men on the wall of the castles however you build towers and the towers comes with "build in" missile troops depend on your type of tower and the era (archers ,crossbowman etc). I saw them in action and I have to tell ya you better take those towers out before you send in your army. Castle walls can be attacked by siege engines only however castle gates can be taken out by foot soldiers but it is time consuming (the computer will show you the damage your doing to the gate in %).
Wooden Keeps can be burned to the ground with fire missiles.

Castle Siege
The most important part of the siege is the deployment of the engines. After you deploy them at the beginning of the battle you can not move them at all. So if you put them to far from the inner walls of the castle you won't be able to take out those part of the castle, this can mean defeat. However if you put them too close to the towers the enemy will bombard your own engines (anyway you can take them out in no time that's why your there in the first place). This is why the siege of the Citadel (5 outer wall) will be a very challenging to the attacker (no brainier).

You can use siege engines to bombard troops however they are very inaccurate.

......more to come................. battle itself


Battle

Overall, the quality of the "little men" on the battle field improved a lot since STW.They are very detailed and colorful, you can easily recognize the different unit types in your army. The man fight individually very cool to watch them decide the future of your kingdom. Movements of the men are very human like I'm happy what I saw there.The most powerful unit will be the Knights (Duhh).

There are few interesting thing, I asked Michael Thursday about the problem we had with the bridge battles . They fixed the problem, now the stronger and the numerically larger army will push trough the other guy lines. This goes for open battles also we can actually drive our knights (troops) trough the lines of the enemy.

One more thing I like to add here and I will retire for today if you guys don't mind. Which is the castle siege. Man it is so cool to see the tower fall apart and the wall going down by the bombardment of the engines. It's looks very realistic, for example as the ball hit the wall outside, the part of the wall falls inside to the castle.COOL.

IMPORTANT NOTE from King Stephen: Ok I will finish it up tomorrow but I think I got all there is I saw at the E3. Please feel free to post your questions here and I might know the answer for it!

You can ask him questions here:
http://pub24.ezboard.com/fshoguntotalwarfrm5.showMessage?topicID=374.topic

[oZoNeLaYeR]

Sounds very promising... i cant wait!!!

[dagdriver]

Danes, YES!!!!! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

[fredi]

Looks awasome!! Can't wait to get this game!!
There is another interesting information in this thread at totalwar.com tahnks to Count of Flanders!!. First the game is still in alpha, they are debugging. Their target for releasing the game is 23 August, although it is not clear for which country it is.But a very interesting information is that a demo is already ready, and according to Michael dePlater could be released in a few weeks!!

[RageMonsta]

Is it me or do some of the features he mentioned that seem new already exist?...for example the time bit on the radar and the pre set (useless) formations of armies....thanx for the info but in parts it sounded like you have never played the game before (STW that is).

Any on-line info? server...game options....in game options...etc?

Mongols?...where?

unit balance info?...am I being a little over demanding?..is it because they often fail to deliver what they promise?...or am I just a grumpy old sod?

[Dark Phoenix]

Monsta I think it would be abit hard to pick up the unit balancing from a short time playing the game. Also some of the things he mentioned were there and some from MI like the clolour of provinces.

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"DP is correct" - Shiro

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We may have years, we may have hours,
but sooner or later, we push up flowers

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Some more info from King Stephen:

There wont be a "cut screen movies" in MTW ( you know what I mean the sort movies like assassination etc., don't know the proper name for it) most likely because they think after most of us saw them few hundred time you wont play them any more. My opinion is they are right, it was fun the first few time but after that I just clicked ok all the time.

Now here is something totally new and it is about the victory conditions and glorious achievement of the game. MTW will have a some kind of point system. The computer will watch every faction and will give point on specific things,for example you get point for conquering a other province. The glorious achievement is based on this system, each faction will have their own unique goals in the game and you will get point by achieving those goals. Unfortunately I didn't had the time (again) to go in to this very "deeply" but glorious achievement will be like the crusades or building some new type of building etc. This part of the game is complex therefore even Michael couldn't show me the G.A. list by faction in few minuets.

Special units will be available only in given provinces therefore you have to control that province to build that type of unit.

What I heard from Corey is the non-playable factions are full Ai which mean they do everything the playables do. This is NOT a STW type of rebel province non-playable thing where you didn't had to worry about them. In MTW we may have 12 playable faction to play with but you will have more than twenty country to give you the headache and play against in any way you want. Be prepared that you (we) may get your(our) butt kicked by a non-playable faction.

For example I saw Corey send a Ambassador to the Golden Horde for a peace treaty, I saw news coming from north European non-playable countries, I saw requisition coming from all over Europe like Aragon,South Italy etc............


Aryaman
The sea travel it's just like STW in one turn ( one turn is 3 month anyway) you can travel from any one port to a other on the map.
The dividing lines on the seas are there for territorial control, who ever control those sea territories will control the trade in that region. To control those you have to have warships so this is when sea battles will come into play you may control few of those lines but anybody can take it from you if they bring in bigger and more advanced warships. I don't know any more detailed info on this one.

Sobieski
There was no time for that, sorry!

Notker
Spain is a playable faction , the map I saw was I thing in the High era Spain controlled most of the Iberian peninsula include Portugal. Rest, no clue. About Jihad please read Pharaoh answer.

Neosbrother
Could be my mistake, sorry.

Siena
Please read my answer for Pharaoh about the non-playable factions. Sorry I didn't see Lithuania however this doesn't mean it's not there, I'm positive it's three. The Russians controlled very limited area of north-east Europe so there are few other non-playable countries with Lithuania who will be active in the game , I hope.

I would like to add one thing here for those who care , namely the Double-Cross Apostolic banner is belong to Hungary, it is confirmed.

[Orda Khan]

Hmmmm. I read now the playable factions and not so impressed. To play whole 400 year campaign you get only 10 to choose from? I agree with Monsta, some of the details seem not new but yes others sound great. I not want to send ambassadors to Golden Horde I rather be Golden Horde!!!! No Austrians or are they covered by Germans? Who back then were not yet a nation proper surely? Will be better to have different armies though, instead of armies made up of choice of few units. This will allow totally different armies to fight now that is cool. But we must be allowed to be Mongol, they to important to leave out they changed the course of Europe.
I copy Krast - 'GAH'
Spits out dummy, stamps feet!!!!
..........Orda

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" Send us your ambassadors and thus we shall judge whether you wish to be at peace with us or at war..if you make war on us the Everlasting God, who makes easy what was difficult and makes near what was far, knows that we know what our power is."

[Dark Phoenix]

Well reading from the .com forum the Mongols start with a lot of provinces and I think it would be real easy to win playing them, besides there is a historical campaign playing them.

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"DP is correct" - Shiro

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We may have years, we may have hours,
but sooner or later, we push up flowers

[Dom]

Quote Originally posted by Dark Phoenix:
Well reading from the .com forum the Mongols start with a lot of provinces and I think it would be real easy to win playing them, besides there is a historical campaign playing them.

[/QUOTE]

***Newsflash***

Mongols aint a playable faction, historical campaign is the one AGAINST them.

Regards, Ryurik

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

King Stephen is St Stephen, lol.

So he does not want me to copy and paste any more of his posts here because i edited some parts of his posts in the Long John thread.

So I won't.

He also wrote that he wants me to delete the posts that i have already pasted. I will... eventually.

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Ils sont grands seulement parce que nous sommes à genoux. Alors levons-nous debout!!!

[Orda Khan]

No Mongols ????
NO MONGOLS ??!!!!!
Hmmm I no longer so excited with MTW
(shrugs, turns and shuffles away muttering.)
.........Orda

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" Send us your ambassadors and thus we shall judge whether you wish to be at peace with us or at war..if you make war on us the Everlasting God, who makes easy what was difficult and makes near what was far, knows that we know what our power is."

[Hirosito]

they will make an add-on like mongol invasion don't worry.

st stephen why did he get in such a state if he knew that he was going to meet de plater in 3 days time?!?! weirdo lol. bu the info is good anyway. KHAN7 should be happy about the lines of engagement moving.

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Hirosito Mori

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

[Nelson]

Thanks for the big post Sir Kuma. It's all good news. The whole game from soup to nuts sounds improved over Shogun.

[Emp. Conralius]

what withyou guys?! Im very much still very much excited about MTW! Who cares if the mongols aren't in this one? Anyways, they where already in STW. the mongols will probably in the expansion pack or something. I'm most excited t play as the Byzantines. Yall should quit whining!It's gonna be the gratest RTS ever!

[FasT]

yeah yeah now tell us release date.
Let me at thoughs castle walls.. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif
Like the part about men in castle towers,sounds kool.
well like many others cant wait till it comes out! yupeee hope its good?

[MagyarKhans Cham]

no problem if they leave the cuttmovies and the Mongols out, uberunits/armies can kill the game. Hungarians had the best cav at that timepriod in europe so our Khan will play with his fartherland-army instead.

[RageMonsta]

Winged Hussars from Serbia about during this time?...would be nice to here them whistle past cutting off heads...

i think that if Mongolia bought more p.c games they would without doubt be playable....maybe we get a playable unit of Apache indians....cos even though set in Europe and the best players live in Europe (ducks the domino pizza boxes from the States) the mass market will have it first.......again....yep envy...damn them all. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

BTW..after the beating that the Europeans got off the Mongols....maybe they shouldnt be included...we might get a little shamed....weak no tactics men on tin suits.

I say gimme the army of the Sultan.....*rumble rumble*...*monsta rolls past on his new toy*.....*super catapult with auto fire*....*rumble rumble*

[spiffy_scimitar]

I'm a little dissappointed about the cinematics being removed. It added spice and pizzazz to the events unfolding. A simple drawing seems a little crude and lowers the production value. The naval battles would especially be nice to have movies, considering we don't play them but they're auto-calculated.
Ah well. I hope they at least have the common sense in adding an introductory and finishing movie. A game that ends on a "congratulations, you win" note just doesn't do it for me.

I remember playing Doom (bad example, I know) and all I got was a text message and credits...I felt pretty cheated.

[Orda Khan]

Look at the playable factions :-
Almohads(????), Egyptians, Turks.
Surely Turks would be enough whether Selyuk, Mameluk or whatever. I think major powers should be included in the game, sorry if it sounds like whingeing but I feel strongly that the choice of factions is disappointing. The Mongols could be a balanced faction the same as any other, after all the Uber units have been sorted haven't they ?? I would like to be able to recreate historic battles etc with some accuracy. The Mongols in the Japanese game were a 'what if?' add on and only invade, pillage, move on. They are not playable as such. That is to say that if they conquered a nation they would have to govern it also.
Yes I will admit the game will be something else but I just don't want to see some nonsense scenario like the Arabs fighting the Danes...like in Age of Empires with Huns v Aztecs !!!!!!
If there is an expansion pack that includes Mongols then great. Let's hope it comes out very soon after......Orda


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" Send us your ambassadors and thus we shall judge whether you wish to be at peace with us or at war..if you make war on us the Everlasting God, who makes easy what was difficult and makes near what was far, knows that we know what our power is."

[omine-san]

Anyone knows how the reinforceents issue is handled in MTW ?

[KukriKhan]

We're all aware of how accurate release dates are (that is: not at all http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif)...however, EB games is now offering MTW pre-order, with a projected 1 Sep 02 release (and a strategy guide in Aug 02):
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/categories/products/product.asp?pf%5Fid=216912

At US$45 for MTW & another $20 for the strat guide, guess I better get a part-time job this summer.

Again: from past experience, I wouldn't count on that 09-02 release. But at least it's good to know the marketing guys have a target date. We sure don't want to rush the dev guys, tho'.

[Emp. Conralius]

Come on guy! Dont let the absense of the Mongols get you guys down that bad! Their just one faction, a rather boring one at that. Concentrate on the other factions. magine the lavish courts of the Byzantines, the majesty of Arabic palaces, or the ferocity of the Vikings (Danes). Im sure the Mongols will be in the expansion, but I wouldn't bet on it comming out real soon. Its gonna be a long few months of anticipation. Come on guys, dont you wanna see legions of French knights being decimated by volleys of English arrows? But I will agree with you guys on the movies, I hope they seriously rethink that move.

[RageMonsta]

boring Mongols?....you need to research and rephrase that statement MR GONNA BE EATING ARROWS IF MONSTA OR MAGYAR FINDS YOU ON LINE..!

Another interesting point...Vikings..more Vikings in Britain than Denmark due to migration....Danish people claiming Vikings all the time is like European Americans claiming Native Indian status.

The fact all Mongol fans can look at is that anything east of Germany is rather well Mongol influenced anyway....considering they held most of it.....Mamlukes were Mongol slaves captured from Europe...like I say gimme the educated and more enlightend men of the Sultan (Khan before Moslim transition)...or the Templars as they were heavily inspired by the eastern ways...in saying that the town I live in supplied the Captain of the Long Bow men at Agincourt...so maybe the English archers will appeal.....

The choice is great...the idea is grand..mainly the AI and character building.....but in the long run the unit balance is a major factor......more news about strengths etc....great to see the gun gone...at last.

[Orda Khan]

Thank you Monsta, well said.
Emp.Conrallius can you imagine the delight at having to make out your will before going to pay tribute to the Khan and the reassurance to your loved ones that you may not return......
Mmmmmm Heaven!!!........Orda

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" Send us your ambassadors and thus we shall judge whether you wish to be at peace with us or at war..if you make war on us the Everlasting God, who makes easy what was difficult and makes near what was far, knows that we know what our power is."

[Hirosito]

lol Emp. Conralius is gonna get lynched

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Hirosito Mori

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Quote Originally posted by Hirosito:
lol Emp. Conralius is gonna get lynched

[/QUOTE]

As Long that it is a friendly lynching if done here http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif. If it's on the virtual MP battlefield, well war is hell...

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Ils sont grands seulement parce que nous sommes à genoux. Alors levons-nous debout!!!

[This message has been edited by Sir Kuma of The Org (edited 05-28-2002).]

[Emp. Conralius]

come on guys, im a fan too, but it's just a game. I'm sure once you guys get more into the other factions, the mongols won't be such a bug deal. And whats with this lynching? Like I said it's just a game. Im not tryingto get on yalls bad side so early in my writings. Thanx for the history lesson Monsta. I think ill need some help in getting my point across. Sir Kuma! I request your assistance! You of all people must know that there is more to this game than just some Mongols! All jokes aside guys, let's stick with the facts guys, the Mongols were in the last one, unless you really need another Mongholian fix, dont threaten to "lynch" me, go speak to Activision.

[Emp. Conralius]

Ord's right that was well said but maybe you should get your facts straight! The mamelukes weree non-arabic slaves imported to serve Muslim warlords. The only case were the mamelukes may have been somewhat influenced by the Mongols was when they defeated the Mongols near Syria. Yes, Muslim slaves beat the Golden Hord. And dontget me wrong, I have respect for the Mongols, but it's just not something to build a franchise on. Thought the Mongols were an important part of early European history, I think fans want to see how activision builds Total War around a European and/or Arabic background. Like i said before, lets discuss this now, not trade words of contempt between you Mongol fans and I. And perhaps one day my Byzantine legions may face your heavy cavalry!

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Don't worry....Ohhh, and welcome to the org http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

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Ils sont grands seulement parce que nous sommes à genoux. Alors levons-nous debout!!!

[Cheetah]

Quote Originally posted by Emp. Conralius:
Ord's right that was well said but maybe you should get your facts straight! The mamelukes weree non-arabic slaves imported to serve Muslim warlords. The only case were the mamelukes may have been somewhat influenced by the Mongols was when they defeated the Mongols near Syria.[/QUOTE]

Yes, let's get the facts straight. The irony of this whole affair is that these slaves were originally captured by the mongols in Europe. The muslims got their slaves from the mongols! Later these slaves turned against their muslim rulers, took power and then turned against the mongols.

Quote Originally posted by Emp. Conralius:
Yes, Muslim slaves beat the Golden Hord.[/QUOTE]

Hm, well, actually it was not the Golden Horde, it was Hulegu's rear guard. Though it Hulegu's army contained tumens (10000 men strong unit of the mongol army) from the Golden Horde (which was the mongol army occupying Europe) these tumens returned when Hulegu himself returned to resolve the power srtuggle between the waring mongol leaders. Adding a further twist to the story those soldiers of the Golden Horde that did not or could not returne to Europe were order to fight with the mameluks against the mongols! This was because part of the power struggle was between Hulegu and the leader of the Golden Horde. So, not just that the mameluks were slaves whom were originally captured by the mongols (at least a substantial part of them) but actually elements of the Golden Horde itself fought side by side with the mameluks! Not to mention the fact that the "mongols" (i.e. hulegu's rear guard) was badly outnumbered, they had some 25 thousand men, wereas the "mameluks" had some 100 thousand men! Finally, Ain Jalut was far from the decisive battle to which it is often depicted. No major mongol army was defeated and it was only the internal struggle between the mongol leaders that prevented them to crush the mameluks.

Quote Originally posted by Emp. Conralius:

And dontget me wrong, I have respect for the Mongols, but it's just not something to build a franchise on.[/QUOTE]

Yep, good observation http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

Have fun: Cheetah

[Emp. Conralius]

Whoa got me:

The Mamelukes, a military, landholding aristocracy, long figured prominently in Middle Eastern history. They were originally recruited from non-Arab slaves imported to serve various traditional Muslim rulers as soldiers and officials. Typically, the erstwhile slaves assumed power themselves in time and continued to replenish their ranks by importing more military slaves. Between the 13th and 19th centuries Mameluke regimes appeared throughout the Muslim world, including India, Iraq, and most notably Egypt. Until 1382 the dominant Mamelukes were mostly of Turkish ethnic origin; after that date, the majority was generally of Circassian origin.

The Egyptian Mamelukes emerged to prominence in 1250 when they overthrew the Ayyubid dynasty and inaugurated a line of more than 50 independent sultans. These sultans presided over an unruly but culturally brilliant era until the Ottoman conquest of 1517. From their capital in Cairo they ruled parts of Syria, Arabia, Libya, and Sudan. An awesome cavalry force when united, the Mamelukes checked the Mongol invasions of Syria, defeated the Crusaders, and suppressed the Assassins. When no outside threats loomed, however, they divided into quarreling factions that seldom cooperated. Most of the sultans had short reigns ending in violence.

Ottoman rule did not hurt the Mamelukes as a class. They continued to share effectively in the rule and wealth of Egypt. On the eve of the French invasion in 1798, Egypt's 20,000 Mamelukes enjoyed virtual independence. Muhammad Ali, who consolidated his own control over Egypt following the French occupation, finally destroyed the Mamelukes in 1811 when he systematically massacred the culturally stagnant old ruling caste.


Get it right!

[Orda Khan]

Quite right Cheetah it was Hulegu's rear guard that lost at Ain Jalut and Golden Horde Tumens were on loan until Berke recalled them during internicine conflict between Horde and Ilkhanate,Berke (Batu's brother)having become Muslim.
From Devil's Horsemen-James Chambers...
...'So vast were the numbers of Cuman(Qipchaq),Circassian and Alan prisoners that they almost outnumbered their Mongol captors.'
These prisoners were either trained for service or sold into slavery. Most were sold to the Sultan of Egypt. Within twelve years Abayak, one of their leaders had become Sultan himself. The first Mameluk Sultan of Egypt. My point about Turks, Egyptians and Almohads was not clear enough sorry. If we consider the map I feel that Arabic and Turk would suffice. No need for Egyptians also.
Let us be aware too that on recall of most Mongol troops to Mongolia following the death of Ogedei, the majority of the 'Golden Horde' were in fact Turkish in origin and by 1280 Turkish was the first language and also used on coinage.
Those lavish courts of Byzantium were kept this lavish perhaps through careful alliegance. Emperor Michael Palaeologus gave his daughter as a bride to Nogai after embarrasingly fleeing across the Black Sea,during conflicts with the Tsar of Bulgaria. It was Nogai who led a force of 20,000 men to his rescue.
Have fun Emp.Conrallius in your quest leading Byzantium, it is your obvious interest and I am glad you have the chance to realise a dream.
Me on the other hand.............Orda
Oh and by the way welcome to the Forum m8


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" Send us your ambassadors and thus we shall judge whether you wish to be at peace with us or at war..if you make war on us the Everlasting God, who makes easy what was difficult and makes near what was far, knows that we know what our power is."

[Hirosito]

sorry about that i didn't mean to say 'is gonna get lynched' but 'is being lynched'. wellcome to the dojo emp.corn.

i don't think it's that big a deal either so there. there are enough factions with a host of different units so no probs.

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Hirosito Mori

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

[Khan7]

If they wanted to add the Mongols they'd have to add all of East Asia. So we're talking about 10X the map, plus the Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese... PLEASE people let's just keep it under control. In the current game there was really no way they could have simulated the Mongols, and NOT because they would be super-armies or whatever.

Matt

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Ever wondered what is the easiest way to change between Stats versions for Shogun? Easy instructions, here (http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000405.html).

[Sjakihata]

Mongols or not!

Danes are in http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif he he.. such a small country and it got a place... earlier in history vikings did play a rather big role in european history, in england and france, but a place in the game YES http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

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"-Know your self, know your enemy and your victory will be painless.
-Know the weather, know the terrain and your victory will be complete."
-Sun Tzu(Wu), The Art of War.

[This message has been edited by Sjakihata Akechi (edited 05-29-2002).]

[Emp. Conralius]

Like I said before, I just wanna discuss the game, not get in an argument. And how am I "getting lynched" Hirosito? And thanx for the welcome. But I'm not sure how you wanted me to take thta "welome to the dojo." And thanx once again for agreeing with me. Im not dissing the Mongols, I'm just saying that ther is much more to the game than just the Mongols. And there is no reason to make such a big deal out of it. Cheetah, Monsta, Orda, we shouldn't argue with each other by copy and pasting info from our encyclopedias. Let's just discuss the game as what we are...TotalWar fans!

[Papewaio]

Quote Originally posted by King Stephen of the Com aka St Stephen of the Org:

STRATEGY SCREEN OR MAP
Now here is where the goodies start.
First you can zoom in and out of the map very nicely unlike in STW. You are able to zoom in so close that you can see only one or part of your provinces. On the other end you can zoom out so you can see almost half of Europe. [/QUOTE]

Zoom, not new.

Quote Originally posted by King Stephen of the Com aka St Stephen of the Org:

The strategy map have a new "color code" feature. Namely you have three color to watch for Green,Yellow and Red. Green mean everybody happy in the given province, Yellow mean people unhappy about their life and Red (yes you guess it right) mean the rebellion is on the horizon.

[/QUOTE]

Colour codes, not new.

Quote Originally posted by King Stephen of the Com aka St Stephen of the Org:


Battle Map

First the battle map screen is partially customizable which mean you can drag the radar screen where ever you like on you monitor. There is one new feature comes with the radar screen, in the bottom of it there is a time adjustment button so you can play with normal speed (left) or you can speed up your battle as much as you like (pull it right). This will make it easier for the player to speed up those long marches or the castle gate attacks, just to name a few.

When you start the very first thing you do is, decide what group formation you will play.This is totally NEW (I love this part) each faction will get almost a dozen (WOW) classical historic group formation unique to that faction (I saw only one faction, I think the Turks, and I saw like Scorpion formation and the other ten more next to it. This is the only part I didn't have the time to write it down because it's so many of them.
[/QUOTE]

Radar screen can already be resized, time can already be toggled on the radar screen 0% to 100% or toggle between the two extremes by Crtl-T.

Group formation as a concept is not new either. As the attacker in Shogun you can pick Crane, Arrowhead formation etc. What looks new is the formations for the faction.


Quote Originally posted by King Stephen of the Com aka St Stephen of the Org:

Let me mention the zooming feature of the battle map. One word: awesome. You can zoom in as ground level , head heights of the troops, the castle looked so huge with this one , I felt like I standing next to the soldiers. On the other end you can zoom up high so you can look it the whole picture of the battle and it's progress.
[/QUOTE]

You guessed it zooming is not a new feature either.

The only new bits I gleaned were faction names (which is cosmetic anyway) and that war machines are positioned before the battle and immobile (which I didn't know but guessed that one... I am still guessing that wheeled cannon are mobile).

BTW
Anyone is welcome to copy my posts and repost them at will http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif (particularly in a certain thread on .Com)


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Victory First, Battle Last

[Khan7]

If we can currently zoom in/out of the strat map and zoom in/out while in a battle.. the I never knew this, please instruct me Pape http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif.

As far as wheeled cannon, they will also be immobile as well they should be.. tactically mobile artillery didn't really happen until the 1500's with King Gustav.

Lookin good, lookin good.. I'll be waiting to see how much of the actual combat they improved.

Matt

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Shogun 2 now available for download! Comes with a nifty version-switching program, so never have to break a sweat! Click here (http://stw2.polarisun.net/stw2.zip) NOW!!

To read all about it, click here (http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000398.html).

[BlackWatch McKenna]

Good call, Khan.

Gustavus was the man.

[Emp. Conralius]

This question is for EVERYONE in the Dojo. In light of E3, what factions are you guys most excited to play as (other than the Mongols)?

[Hirosito]

HRE, danes or some eastern faction i'll have to look at the specifics

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Hirosito Mori

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

[The Black Ship]

Frankly we don't have enough unit info to make an intelligent evaluation...but on an unintelligent level I'm for the Byzantines (I think I could have done better http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif) or Danes (though the height of the Viking conquests are long gone by then).

Camels are too smelly and mean tempered for my taste, so I'll stick with horse civs too.

[Emp. Conralius]

This is a question for EVERYONE! Which of the factions (besides the Mongols) are you guys most excited to play as?

[Emp. Conralius]

I agree Black Ship. But if you take a look at the gallery @ TotaWar.com yu'll see some of the Byzantine, Almohad, Italian, Spanish, and Egyptian type units (for the Byzantines they also included the Kataphratoi). Im also excited to see what the danes have to offer as well as the Turks. And as far as Vikings go, I think they'll fall between te gap of technology and go the way of the war galley (also included) very early in the game.

[Emp. Conralius]

Sir Kuma, as far as castles go, are you able to see the missile troops in the towers? And you said you can also burn stuff down with missile fire. Is that in a given unit or must you upgrade that?

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Quote Originally posted by Emp. Conralius:
Sir Kuma, as far as castles go, are you able to see the missile troops in the towers? And you said you can also burn stuff down with missile fire. Is that in a given unit or must you upgrade that?[/QUOTE]

1. NO

2.I don't know (You sure i said that? Must be my evil twin cause i don't think it's me http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif )



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Ils sont grands seulement parce que nous sommes à genoux. Alors levons-nous debout!!!

[Prodigy]

Since MY favourite, Kiev Rus, is not included in this game, I will go with Holly Roman Empire. No personal reason - just their flag icludes my favourite colours. I hope Teutonic Knights will rock the podium!

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I am the law and you can't beat the law.

[Tarrak]

Papewaio...

Yes, he did send us some info that was there in STW and MI.
If you have not seen the screenshots I can understand your ignorance, trust me we can see over the shoulders of the men or almost directly down. VERY cool, much better than the 30 degrees we can tilt now.

And maybe you should present more than the faults he made...

and Monsta, I have always had respect for you, but that comment that there were more Vikings in England is not true. It was not England then, it was Danelagen. When it was conquered back all Danes were killed or driven away... So they were never English.

[This message has been edited by Tarrak (edited 06-10-2002).]

[Hirosito]

suddenly all the danes crawl out of the woodwork. thank you for beating the french.

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Hirosito Mori

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

[Tarrak]

Not really, I'm an oldie in the .com

I just had some talks with barocca about the nags looks compared to before.

[MagyarKhans Cham]

in teh ancient history of teh game its called "hyping"

[Hirosito]

has the cham ever spelt 'the' right? tarrak only joking although i dont really visit the .com forums.

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Hirosito Mori

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

[Emp. Conralius]

Well said Tarrak!

[Papewaio]

Quote Originally posted by Tarrak:
[B]Papewaio...

Yes, he did send us some info that was there in STW and MI.
If you have not seen the screenshots I can understand your ignorance, trust me we can see over the shoulders of the men or almost directly down. VERY cool, much better than the 30 degrees we can tilt now.

And maybe you should present more than the faults he made...
[B][/QUOTE]

What I was pointing out was once filtered of everything that already had been said previously in press releases or was already within the game system not much was new in his report. The reason I had done such was because of his very abusive post that he had made in the forum and his ego was getting in the way. After reading the reason for said ego I realised that nothing new had been mentioned so it was a case of all fluff and no substance... something I should know about as that is my area of expertise http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif.

Oh btw I believe when on a cliff in STW I can look down at more the 30 degrees. Also to get a off the shoulder look I move the camera in as my troops walk up a hill. The level of zoom though looks to have increased in line with the x4 factor of everything else.

[Tarrak]

Well in MTW you can look over their shoulders on flat ground.
In STW/MI you can tilt from something like 10 degrees to 40 degrees, more or less. So yes you look down on the men at more than 30 degrees. But I was referring to the option you have...

I know of his history somewhat, I don't expect you to like him, but just presenting his faults... Well, that makes you look like you only want to get at him.
I have read all of his info and this is about 5% of what he has said to us. He made several large posts, that was just part of them.

[This message has been edited by Tarrak (edited 06-12-2002).]

[Papewaio]

Quote Originally posted by Khan7:
If we can currently zoom in/out of the strat map and zoom in/out while in a battle.. the I never knew this, please instruct me Pape http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif.

As far as wheeled cannon, they will also be immobile as well they should be.. tactically mobile artillery didn't really happen until the 1500's with King Gustav.

Matt

[/QUOTE]

As far as wheeled cannon I was thinking of the ability not so much as moving (maybe inching s l o w l y forward to take out the inner walls against castles) but the ability to pivot on the spot compared with that of a platform such as a catapult.

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Now my young apprentice prepare for your instruction in the true power of our fully operational STW.

To zoom on the strategy map use the number pad.
1 will zoom in and 3 will zoom out.

In battle mode I was thinking along the lines of changing the camera elevation to minimum and tilting the camera forward to zoom in on troops...the banner bearers appear to take up to a quarter of the height of the battlefield not including icons above and below the view.


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Victory First, Battle Last

[This message has been edited by Papewaio (edited 06-13-2002).]

[Tarrak]

Yes, that is true. (I didn't even know you could zoom in the strategic map, well I never needed it)

I suspect you (Pape) have now seen the screenshots. There it is very visible that you can look almost directly down at the men, like in any other RTS, and in low mode you can get so close to the ground that a knight seems like a giant.

[Papewaio]

Quote Originally posted by Tarrak:
Yes, that is true. (I didn't even know you could zoom in the strategic map, well I never needed it)
[/QUOTE]

Well I tend not to use it much either but it is there. And it is useful to zoom out to port from one side to the other of the map rather then click and slowly drag across.

or zoom in and pick the particular army in an overstacked province.

[Emp. Conralius]

I'm sure you all have heard the good nes. Finally, the tutorial demo for Medieval: Total War was released by PC Gamer magazine! Unfortunately, at this point, it's only available in th U.K. But in the demo are 8 tutorial missions and the Battle of Jaffa! They say in July that it will be available to all everybody worldwide!