Finally picked up the MTW 2 - some questions

[NewJeffCT]

Yes, I know it's been out for a while, but I've had a Mac at home until last week, so I did not buy the game and missed out on Rome Total War.

However, I was a fairly regular poster in MTW days, though I did notice I hadn't logged into the forums since 9/30/04.

I started off with England in my first Grand Campaign, single player.

1 - several settlements went governor-less? The rulebook says I need a general to govern a settlement, but I can't figure out how to name one? In the old MTW, you just named the guy with the highest acumen as your governor and dropped the governor's scroll/papers onto him and presto, you have your governor. The "advisor" woman told me to name a governor in one settlement to help with public unrest, but even when I changed it to "automanage" one was not named? Am I just missing the scroll?

2 - merchants/trade. In the old game, you just built trading posts, merchant, etc and trade would happen automatically, and would increase as your fleet expanded around the map. However, even though I was expanding my fleet of cogs (and later a few Holks) and spreading them from Sweden through Portugal, I didn't really see similar? I had merchants on various items - wool, wine, etc - should a merchant just stay parked on one item, or does he move around and keep gathering them? It seems he should just stay parked? Especially since every time I moved a merchant out of English territory, he got put out of business by some French merchant... Do I have to get my fleet a bit farther around Spain to see the trade values go up, or am I barking up the wrong tree? (meaning, wool near London isn't valuable, but if you have a ship down near Morocco or Italy, it might be?)

3 - why did the game change from 1 year turns to 2 year turns?

Thanks

[TheLastPrivate]

First off congratulations on getting your own M2TW!

Now, for the questions..

1. Generals/family members are governors now. You just throw them in a settlement and the general will become the governor. I haven't played the first MTW but no papers/scrolls needed, the game automatically assumes the general is the governor.

2. trade happens automatically, merchants generate extra income when they're parked on top of resources. If you have a monopoly the income is double, and resources farther away/rarer value have better value. Ivory and gold from Africa and silk/spices from the east are good items, and later on you can find some very rare resources that yield up to 1500 gold per merchant...depending on his finance level, that is. Having your sheeps explore won't change your trade values as it will happen automatically. Better shipyards offer more trade routes so build this fast. Also, acquiring other merchant's assets means extra gold for your treasury so try to acquire when you can.

3. Since the game spans from 1080 to the discovery of americas (at least), thats about 400 years. 400 turns, meh...so they changed it to 2 years. However if you don't like seeing your faction leader die in 10 turns (like me), you can use a program called "MedManager" to change the year values and stuff on your savegame.

I bid your empire a splendid one.

[NewJeffCT]

1. Generals/family members are governors now. You just throw them in a settlement and the general will become the governor. I haven't played the first MTW but no papers/scrolls needed, the game automatically assumes the general is the governor.

2. trade happens automatically, merchants generate extra income when they're parked on top of resources. If you have a monopoly the income is double, and resources farther away/rarer value have better value. Ivory and gold from Africa and silk/spices from the east are good items, and later on you can find some very rare resources that yield up to 1500 gold per merchant...depending on his finance level, that is. Having your sheeps explore won't change your trade values as it will happen automatically. Better shipyards offer more trade routes so build this fast. Also, acquiring other merchant's assets means extra gold for your treasury so try to acquire when you can.

3. Since the game spans from 1080 to the discovery of americas (at least), thats about 400 years. 400 turns, meh...so they changed it to 2 years. However if you don't like seeing your faction leader die in 10 turns (like me), you can use a program called "MedManager" to change the year values and stuff on your savegame.

I bid your empire a splendid one.

1 - so, it seems that just moving troops there, the best soldiers aren't automatically a general?

2 - I had meant, do I keep my merchants within provinces I already own, or are those items (like sheep/wool near London) already giving me income, so I need to move my merchants outside my areas?

3 - the old game went from 1087 to 1453, which is 366 years. Not too much less.

Thanks for the answers.

[ReiseReise]

1 - so, it seems that just moving troops there, the best soldiers aren't automatically a general?

2 - I had meant, do I keep my merchants within provinces I already own, or are those items (like sheep/wool near London) already giving me income, so I need to move my merchants outside my areas?

3 - the old game went from 1087 to 1453, which is 366 years. Not too much less.

Thanks for the answers.
First of all, welcome to the wonderful game, I hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as I have.
I will try to be as explicit as possible since it seems you are a bit lost, i don't mean to insult your intelligence or anything. :embarassed:

Note: I use the word cities as a general term for your settlements whether they are Towns, Wooden Castles, Fortresses, Huge Cities, etc.

1. You need to have a named character in a settlement to have a proper governor. The named characters have a different appearance on the strategy map (main screen where you see your cities, move units, etc) when they are outside of a city, and when you put the mouse over them it shows just a name instead of 'Captain + name'. His chivalry or dread will add to public order, also, chivalry adds to growth, piety adds to income. If a settlement has a governor you will see his picture when you open up the city window (where you choose what buildings/armies to build).

2. Merchants only generate income when they are sitting on top of a resource, so it is best to leave them in one spot unless there is something more profitable they can move too. You get more money for putting merchants on resources that are not near your capital. For instance since you have Wool in London, wool in Sicily will be almost worthless, even if there is no merchant on the London wool. So it is best to find resources that you do NOT have in your homeland. Playing as England, Silk and Spices near the holy land are good. Gold and ivory in Timbuktu (in Africa on far bottom edge of map south of spain) are the very best resources but they take a long trek through the desert to get too.
BUT... You do not NEED merchants to benefit from trade, Merchants are a totally separate system and do not affect the trade income of cities in any way. They generate their own income separate from your cities trade income. Your cities will automatically trade the best resources they can with your other cities or the cities of factions who you have trade agreements with. . Also having ships in some part of the map does not affect your cities trade, your cities will trade with other cities even if you cannot see them on your map.

Aside. If you don't mind "cheating", type ` (NOT ') to open up the console, and then use 'toggle_fow'. This will reveal the whole map to you (temporarily if you choose) so you can get a feel for where other factions, good resources, important cities etc are. toggle_fow a 2nd time will hide the map like it was before. Personally i don't mind doing this as long as I don't use it to spy on enemy armies... are you going to tell me the English don't know exactly where Paris or Rome or Jerusalem is?

[NewJeffCT]

Aside. If you don't mind "cheating", type ` (NOT ') to open up the console, and then use 'toggle_fow'. This will reveal the whole map to you (temporarily if you choose) so you can get a feel for where other factions, good resources, important cities etc are. toggle_fow a 2nd time will hide the map like it was before. Personally i don't mind doing this as long as I don't use it to spy on enemy armies... are you going to tell me the English don't know exactly where Paris or Rome or Jerusalem is?

Thanks - didn't realize merchants were separate from city trading and building merchant buildings in a city. It didn't really seem clear from the rulebook, unless I missed that piece of it. I'll admit I didn't read the book from cover to cover.

Also, I have no clue what a toggle_fow is, but I do remember I used to like in the old MTW spreading my religious guys all around the world so I could see the whole map...

[DVX BELLORVM]

toggle_fow is a cheat that reveals all map and units on it.