New to MTW2

I have just this week begun playing MTW2 (and am installing kingdoms as I write this) I have played around a bit with a few factions and need a bit of advice.

What are the best ways to grow my economy? I try to get ports built as fast as I cna in cities, along with the market line of building and merchants. Are the number of merchants I am allowed linked to the number/level of markets I have? Is it a good idea to build farms for the income or does large populations become a problem later on? What exactly does a merchants guild do for me (I built one in Milan, assuming that I wouold build more skilled merchants, but they were no better than the ones I could produce before). And how do I get my merchants to increase in skill?

Choosing the right faction for me. Based on how I played MTW and RTW I want to build good defensive armies comprised of powerful heavy infanty, backed up with good ranged units and some heavy cavalry. I would also like to be catholic. I have tried England (not got past turn 30-ish) and found their infantry was mediocore at best, do they get much better later on?

What is the latest patch for the game?

Are there any major bugs I need to know of? (I am aware there was a bug where units with 2 handed weapons would not kill because of their animations, is this fixed?)

EDIT: 1 more question. How I change the game from turns to years?

Thanks

Hi and welcome to the Citadel.

Best way to grow the economy is via markets, ports, and sea_trade buildings. Roads don't add to income but are a nice addition anyway.
Outside of these, merchants' guilds also raise your trade income. Merchants themselves are a separate souce however and I will not go much into detail except say that they are linked to number of markets and their level you have and that you can do a search for the merchant thread.
Generally, you want a high trade in areas linked to many others by sea or land, best both, and with some natural resources. Never however build land trade buildings on island that do not trade via land (check via trade tab) as they will be wasted (except for providing a higher max merchant number)

Farming is a good tool for increase population growth and rush for larger settlements. However, you generally want a governor or a bit higher than maximum militia force to also keep the general unrest in check in that case. Farming provides an OK source of income that varies by harvest.

England's infantry is great later on with armored swordsmen. Their spears lack, but you got longbows who have stakes. Cavalry is decent.
HRE and France are not too bad either, though their long range missiles are all crossbows rather than bows.

The latest patch for M2TW is 1.3 (which is really the same as 1.2) and the latest for Kingdoms is 1.5.

2H anims are not fixed except for in a few mods. Try mine if you like (Does not require kingdoms)

If you have the gold version (which I suppose you do because you install kingdoms), there is only one patch for you that you can get from the official site. Most bugs, like the 2-handed one were already fixed before kingdoms and there's no problem now.

Be sure to get something like retrofit mod to get the benefits of kingdoms for your grand campaign, too. Otherwise, you have different unit stats in the different campaigns, which :dizzy2:.

I avoid using billmen as they are killed too easily. But Armoured Swordsmen and Dism. English Knights are among the best infantry in the game. All catholic factions are strong in infantry, it depends on if you prefer defensive or offensive tactics. Italian factions have good spearmen, The Danes have good assault infantry. France and Germany have a good balance of both. Spain and Portugal don't have any spears other than militias and rely on cavalry and light infantry. Poland and Hungary specialize more in cavalry. England has the best overall combination of units among the catholics. They don't have spears. However they don't need them thanks to the longbows stakes.

Edit: The first level farm is advisable everywhere. If you should build the other levels, depends on the fertility of the region. Don't go over 8% population growth from all sources combined plus what growth you get from public health buildings.

To change from turns to years, go in your medieval folder \Medieval II Total War\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign. Then open descr_strat and put a " ; " in front of the line the says show date as turns to disable it.

CA claimed 2Hs were fixed, but they certainly are not (against infantry). Which is why you need a mod t fix them.

Perhaps you're right, didn't play vanilla for a long time. In kingdoms they are fixed, so they are in retrofit.

Isn't the 2h bug partially fixed? I remember playing unpatched vanilla and watching in horror while my billmen stood around doing nothing while they were slaughtered by cavalry; I'm pretty sure this doesn't happen anymore does it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Poor Bloody Infantry

Isn't the 2h bug partially fixed? I remember playing unpatched vanilla and watching in horror while my billmen stood around doing nothing while they were slaughtered by cavalry; I'm pretty sure this doesn't happen anymore does it?

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Yeah, they overperform against cavalry now and still do next to nothing against infantry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FactionHeir

CA claimed 2Hs were fixed, but they certainly are not (against infantry). Which is why you need a mod t fix them.

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I dunno ...it's listed as fixed in every single patch description for 1.2 and 1.3 I can find.

Its called appeasement :tongue2:

Roads can dramatically increase trade, double it in some cases. But only ever Paved Roads, Dirt Roads have no effect on trade.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FactionHeir

Its called appeasement :tongue2:

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Oh don't get me wrong...I consider it entirely within the realm of possibilities that it says "fixed" and is not "fixed". lol...I was just saying, they're listing it as fixed.

If you guys are playing and see there's still a problem, well then there's still a problem.