Beginner's guide for Multiplayer

Introduction


There are many online guides about playing Total War in Multiplayer. There are many more unfinished guides about playing Total War in Multiplayer.

For online players, it becomes quickly obvious that the learning curve is difficult. The purpose of all the guides is to shorten the time required to learn the game. The fact that there are so many unfinished guides around is a tribute to how difficult and rich a subject Medieval Total War online is.

It's such a rich subject, and such a subjective one, that I expect many more experienced and skilled players to disagree with the advices you'll find in the current guide.
Please keep it civil


I'd also like to thanks my two muses for this guide.

Thanks to frogbeastegg. This guide started a long time ago when Lady Frog expressed some interest in playing some online games, and when I have tried to give her some tips to make the transition from SP to MP easier. Many parts of the current guide are directly copied from our exchange back then. She also provided very valuable advices about the content of the guide, not to mention a lot of groundwork and proofreading.
I know I would not have done it, if it were not for you.

Also thanks to LadyAnn. There is two aspects to LadyAnn contribution. She provides the basic support and forum to write the guide, hosting it in its infancy. She also provided and compiled additional data which helped making many aspects of the game clearer (at least to me).
More importantly, her kindness and dedication to the cause of helping beginners online was a constant inspiration for me. If you are starting online, there is one thing you can do that can't go wrong, and that's asking advice to [FF]Anniep, a.k.a. LadyAnn
Thanks Annie


If you think this guide is worthy enough to be hosted somewhere else, if you want to host it or use it, just let me know. As long as you pay tribute to the above mentioned muses (poems, drawings or songs... as you wish), don't claim it's your work and don't seek to make profit out of it, it'll be fine by me.


Welcome to Medieval Total War online, I hope I'll meet you there soon. It's a fun and challenging game, I hope you'll enjoy it

Good luck, and have fun

Louis,

Introduction

Table of content

I. Getting on line

1 / Technical requirement

(Computer / connection / patch)

2/ Registering on gamespy

(No you don't need GS arcade)

3/ joining the Foyer

(foyer feature such as ignore / unignore / pm / group pm/ relog../ scrollock bug / joining throught GS vs joining throught the game / warning on CD key / log on errors / foyer etiquette)

II. Battle

1/ Joining a game

2/ Hosting a game

(hosting screen / options set in hosting vs options set in game / hosting a popular game / banning & kicking)

3/ Battle lobby

(Battle lobby feature & screen explanation / picking a faction / picking a colour and explanation of initial deployment)

4/ Battlefield

(from a technical standpoint, what is different from SP; free deployment / NO PAUSE / no valour gain in battle / no -ian / chat feature. No advice on tactic or army composition at this step)

III. The Art of War

1/ Skill of a victorious general

(battle awareness; without ian how to see what is important/ minimap yes or no? / manoeuvre; grouping strategy, moving with a click / morale & distance between units, cluster & mass route)

2/ Training your Army

a) General consideration

b) Units

c) army list

3/ Tactics

a) opening moves

b) middle game

c) end game

d) Team tactics

IV. Others

1/ Game analysis

2/ TW social life

3/ Maps and mods

Froggy: Gah No pause Gah From SP to MP

Conclusion

I./. Getting on line

1./. Technical requirement

Your computer needs to meet minimum requirement; if you look at the back of your box, you'll see

Required for Multiplayer Mode

PIII 750 or athlon processor or higher
128 Mb of ram
28.8k connection

The minimum requirement for SP is only a PII 350.

One of the main differences between MP and SP is that up to 8 armies can join a battle; which means a lot of sprites and a lot of computing power. Much more than a regular 1v1 in SP.

Failure to meet the requirements will result in very slow, laggy games.

Many like to blame bad connections or gamespy for lag or slow games; most of the time, a slow computer is really the problem.

Louis; Dispelling the 56k legend; MTW/ VI is somehow very tolerant with high ping. I often play on a Tasmanian 56k server (I am on the US East Coast), 4v4 games with normal unit size; ping is in the 400+; and most of the time it works fine.
If the connection is stable; you will not have problems.

To see if your system is good enough to handle MP, you can test in 4v4 SP custom games normal size units. If your PC can't handle that, then you have a problem.
A few steps that can help;
- do not join 4v4 or 3v3 if you can't play them in SP...
- reduce unit size (as defined in your game options)
- reduce graphic options, gunpowder, birds, etc... (As defined in your game options)
- play in arid / summer setting to avoid graphically challenging weather conditions
- don't do anything else while playing; no downloading movies, no background program, protect yourself against pop up...

You also need MTW, MTW / VI. As a CD key is required, please support Creative Assembly, buy the game, and get a CD key.

Your CD key is on the back of your manual for European edition and on your CD case for US edition; it looks like 1234-5678-90AB-CDEF-GHIJ-KLMN (note: for any chancers out there this is not a functioning CD key, go buy the game).

A small note on CD keys: Don't give yours to anyone

Both MTW and VI have been patched. All, or nearly all, online players use the latest patch; 1.1 for MTW and 2.01 for VI you can download the patch from http://www.totalwar.com/community/download.htm)


2./. Registering on gamespy

Beside LAN, there are no other options except going through Gamespy.

If you play other online games and are already registered on Gamespy you can use your existing account.

If you do not have a gamespy account, you'll have to create one. Open up your Internet connection. Now while you are still on the Internet start up MTW. Some people do not need to open their Internet connection before launching the game, others do. This guide suggests opening a connection just to avoid the hassle of quitting the game if you do need to open a connection manually. Because you have an open Internet connection the multiplayer option in the game's main menu will not grey out as it usually does. Click on multiplayer, then on 'register a gamespy account'. You do not need to install gamespy arcade on your PC to play multiplayer, so save yourself some hard drive space. You will be taken out of the game and onto the Internet so don't panic. Registering your account is quite straightforward; simply enter the information it asks for. You can't use blank space for your online name; most players use '_' or '-'.
Make sure you deselect the 'send me information etc' options at the bottom unless you actually want to be emailed adverts etc. When you have registered your gamespy account return to the MTW menu leaving your Internet connection open. The registration process is over when Gamespy forward you to a totalwar.com page.

3./. Joining the foyer

The foyer, or the lobby is the virtual place where online players meet, chat and join games.

a)to join;

Start MTW, click on 'play multiplayer' then on 'play with gamespy'. Now you will need to enter all the correct information for the account you created. So remember and write down the name you chose for yourself and your password. You will also need your CD key (which is on the back of your manual for European edition and on your CD case for US edition; it looks like 1234-5678-90AB-CDEF-GHIJ-KLMN).
Tick the box labeled 'remember my password' as it saves you a bit of hassle each time you want to play. When you have entered all of the information click on continue. There will be a pause as the information is verified, if something is mistyped or wrong you will be returned to this screen with a message telling you what the problem is (invalid password, invalid CD key etc) so you can re-enter the information and try again. If everything is correct you will find yourself at a new screen - the foyer.
Error message can sometimes be self explanatory; wrong CD keys are just that; be sure you really respect the typo of your CD key; commonly confused characters are 0 and o. Invalid passwords are also obvious; you enter a different password than the one you used when you registered.
But sometimes you will face an enigmatic 'Log on Error' message. Gamespy server might be down. Or you may have other connections problems. Your best options are:
1/ reboot & restart
2/ post about the problem at .com, .org or .net and maybe someone will help.

Louis tip : you can also start playing using Gamespy. Once you will click on host or join a game in Gamespy, MTW will start, and you will go through the same steps described above. It is recommended NOT to use Gamespy; just start MTW, and choose play multiplayer without worrying about Gamespy at all

Assuming everything worked fine, your screen should look like below:

b)the foyer

http://www.thiep.com/iB_html/uploads...662-Foyer1.jpg

The foyer looks complicated at first glance but it is quite straightforward once you know what is what. The large box at the top lists current games along with important information like player counts, florins, the host etc. For more on this box and joining a game in general check step 3: Choosing and joining a game, below.

Below this is a large box that is subdivided into smaller boxes. Down the right hand side of this large box is a small column listing names. This is the player list. To send a message to a specific player click on their name in this list. To send a message to everyone click on room. If a player's name is in grey they are not available for you to message either because they are in a game or because they are away from keyboard (also called afk) To send a private message to multiple players at once just hold down shift and click on the names, selected names will turn red. When you have selected everyone you want just let go of shift.

To the left of the player list is a box labeled 'medieval' and you will probably see a lot of fast scrolling text in it. This area is where all messages targeted at the room appear; that is why it is so busy.

Underneath this box is another, unlabelled box. This is your private message space. If someone sends you a private message it will appear here, alongside any private messages you send.

Below this large, subdivided box is a little rectangle with a prompt in it. This is the chat box, as you type a message in here before sending it. The prompt starts out as 'To Room>' but it will change as you target different players, for example targeting frogbeastegg would result in 'To frogbeastegg>'. If you have selected more than one person it will read ';To Selection>'. One important thing to note about the chat box - it is very small so you must try to be compact in your messages. Either that or break them up into several smaller chunks.

Code Sample Foyer lingo:
afk; "away from keyboard"
relog; exiting the foyer and relogging to 'refresh' the player list and game list
gg; "good game"; ritual sentence after a game either it has been good or bad
gl & hf; "good luck and have fun"; ritual sentence before a game
brb; "be right back"[/QUOTE]

Code Sample Foyer command;
#ignore + player name; you won't see this player message anymore. Very helpful against spammer.
#unignore + player name; cancel an ignore command.[/QUOTE]

You can also press CTRL + Click on the target player name instead of typing the whole name

People you have on ignore will remain on ignore the next times you will log on. If you have different online names, your names will have different ignore list.

After a game, you might not be able to see new games, or new players in the player list; that is why many players 'relog' after a game. This refresh the game and player list which can get stuck after you played a battle.
Also, you may face the 'scroll lock bug'; suddenly (most of the time just after a game) you can't scroll the player list anymore. Again, the solution is to 'relog', or if this is not enough to exit the game and restart.

Polite behaviour will be rewarded. If you are mean or abusive people won't like you and won't want to join your games or play with you. Please don't use foul language. Please be respectful of our international community. This game is played around the world and someone's kids could be looking over daddy's shoulder at any time. This is just a matter of courtesy to others. If you insist on being a jerk you may find yourself on everyone's IGNORE list--or even worse--you may be banned from people's games. At the most extreme your CD Key will be revoked by the publisher (it does happen).

II. Veillees d'armes

1./. Joining a game

While you are in the foyer take a look at the list of games. This will obviously be different each time you log on. Reading the games box from left to right you will see:
Game - this is the name of the game.
Map - this is the map you will fight on. The names are the same as the maps you find in single player custom games.
Style - this will always read LMS, short for last man standing. In other words rout the enemy to win
Era - either Viking, early, high or late. This affects what units you can use, just like in single player custom battles.
Florins - The total you can spend on your army. If you are part of a team this sum will be divided between all of your team.
Players - always shown as something like 2/2. The first number is the amount of players in the game; the second is the required total for the game to start. For example 4/8 means that there are 4 players waiting and 8 are needed for the game to start - the game needs more people
Ping - How good the connection is. To put it simply lower=better. Avoid games with more than 700.

If you put your cursor over a game's name you will see a pop up with more details on the game. This includes climate, florins, season, camera settings and so on. This is useful information so check up on a game before you join

To join a game click on its name and then join. When the game has the required number of players you will advance to choosing your army, selecting teams and so on.

Some games require a password; the host of the game is hosting a private game. Unless you have the password, you can't join.
Don't get upset about that. Some players have been playing together for the last 3 years together and are good friends. They just want to have a fun and challenging game together.

Even in open games, you might be asked to leave to let your spot to another player. Sometimes, players play in group (whether in clans or not) and will ask to play with their friends and might need your spot to make room for them.
You can of course do the same; if you play online with a friend of yours, let the host know that you need two (or more) slots; those might no be available, but there won't be any hard feeling if you leave because there were no room for your friend.
If someone else leaves to let your friend play with you in a teamgame make sure to thank the leaving person.

2./. Hosting a game


To host a game click on 'host game' at the bottom of your screen. Once you have clicked on 'host game' a new screen appears asking you for the setting of the game you want to host.

http://www.thiep.com/iB_html/uploads...eneralview.jpg

Those settings are: map choice, season, and climate (which also affect architecture, i.e. the look of the map), name of the battle, florins for the team (will be divided between all players on one side), number of players, password (if any), style of game (only Last Man Standing is available), era (Viking, early, high or late), and time limit on/off.
Note that other settings, such as limited/unlimited ammo, limited/ unlimited camera, morale on/off, fatigue on/off and size of army are as defined in your game options (i.e. same options as your SP games).

Once you are done; just click on continue.

Hosting a popular game: nobody joined your game? Be aware that some settings are more popular than other. You may not find many people to join a 4v4 with a bridge map. Many players also dislike castle maps, mountain maps, or even hilly maps.
It's a matter of personal taste, and there is nothing wrong with those maps per se. But you may have trouble finding many players to join those.

Warning: if you are behind a router or a firewall, your game will be invisible to other players; as a consequence nobody will join it. There is a workaround, but a rather tricky one. If you are a technical expert, it's likely you know about it, if you are not a technical expert it is not recommended you try to do it.

Important: if you host a game and quit during the battle, the battle will be stopped and everyone will drop. PLEASE DO NOT QUIT WHILE HOSTING. Quitting whole hosting is a very sure way to be sure other players won't join your game again.

3./. the Battle Lobby

Once you have clicked 'continue' on the hosting screen, or if you just choose to join a game, you end up in a private battle room.

http://www.thiep.com/iB_html/uploads...lourchoice.jpg

This is where you will choose on which side you want to fight, your general area of deployment on the map, and the faction you want to play.

a) On the upper left side of the screen, you will have a very short reminder of game condition (unfortunately very incomplete...).

b) The middle of the screen is divided between 'Attack' and 'Defense'; if you click on the left box you will be in the attacking team, if you click on the right box you will be in the defending team.

c) The lower part of the screen is a short version of the foyer chat room; note that in the player list you now have:

Game Room: to speak to all players in the game (will be written in Bordeaux)
Game Allies: to speak to your allies (will be written in light green)

Also note a small 'filter public chat' box you can tick to... Ignore public (room) chat You'll only see private messages, game, and game allies' chat.

Froggy's tip: Make sure you use the filter public chat option, without it you can get lost in an endless stream of unrelated chat and the messages you are interested in get lost before you can read them. This is especially important if someone is kind enough to talk you through setting up and playing a game, if you don't filter chat you will probably not have time to read their help messages before they are swept away.

d) In The upper right side of the map you will see the faction's shields, a couple of up/down arrows and a small black&white shield.

Clicking on the shield faction will change your faction choice; click on Turks and you will play the Turks
The up & down arrow will give you access to additional factions (Hungary, Papacy, Golden Horde, Swiss... Faction availability depends on era).

The small white & black shield will allow you to change of colour. You don't like purple Byzantines? Get them in green and yellow just like Italians

The main interest of changing colour, putting aside from sheer coolness, is that it also changes your deployment zone on the map.

Tomi's deployment zone explanation:

If you want to select a particular deployment position in a team game,

Click on little shield between arrows (left of Faction Shields), to select Colors.

http://www.clanwarscomp.org/storage/colors.gif

Then by comparing your shield colors with your team mates, you can place your self where you want to start off in the battle.

Leftmost Shield = Center
Next Right = Left Flank
Next Right = Right Flank
Rightmost Shield = Point (Advanced Left Flank)

Can be any Colors selection, but must be in left to right Order.


It is the same order as deployment in:

1v1 = Center
2v2 = Center and Left Flank
3v3 = Center, Left Flank, and Right Flank
4v4 = Center, Left, Right, and Left Front

An easier way to use the Order of Colors above:

The lowest number will be Center.
The next lowest number will be Left Flank
The next highest number will be Right Flank
The highest number will be Point.

And you don't even need the chart above to use this system. Just count the shields from left to right, top to bottom to find your number.



The host of a game can #kick any player out of his game, using the #kick + player name function.

Down the screen there is a waiting for players / ready button and an exit button. Once you have chosen your team, faction, and colour move on to unit selection.

4./. Unit selection

warning; the purpose of the following section is NOT to address the very important question; which units should I buy?

The unit selection screen is similar to the SP custom game unit selection screen: the only difference being a small chat window down the screen. The chat window function exactly as other chat windows already described.

The host's game setting will provide you with an amount of money with which you will buy troops.

The amount of florins left is available on the upper right corner.

You can shift from infantry to cavalry to artillery by clicking on the small 'silhouette' just above unit selection screen.

To choose a unit, just click on it; it will be added up to your army down the screen. You can add up Valour (+1 Attack / +1Defense / +2 Morale), Weapon (+1 Attack) or Armour (+1Defense / +1Armour) to each of your unit at an extra cost (+70% for valour, +33% for attack and +37% for defense). Missile units get a discount when upgraded.
There is an extra cost if you take more than 4 of the same unit.

Once you are done with choosing your army just click ready. You will be back to the 'Battle room'. You will wait there while everyone else buys their army... Please think ahead what armies you want to play so that you won't need 30 minutes to pick units in game.

You can use [FF]Almicar 'army builder' to help you think ahead when picking your army.

Almicar army builder

General guidelines for army building.

As stated above, this guide won't give you army listings ready to use for MP in this section.

There are far too many different styles and in battle variables (florin available, climate, map, era, etc...) to give a good account of all the armies, instead play custom battles and see what army composition works for you.

Still, there are very, very simple rules that all MP players will agree on.

1/ Spend all your money. ALL OF IT. There is no reason not to upgrade your troops to the maximum you can with the money you have.
2/ When buying upgrades buy valour first. The only exception might be missile units for which armour might be desirable, but even for that some very good players might make a good case for valour upgrade for missiles. Valour will provide the same upgrade than weapon + upgrade, for less florins with a morale upgrade on top
3/ Buy 16 units - a complete army. There might be some very special circumstances in which you might not want to... But that's very, very rare.
4/ Avoid buying more than 4 of the same unit. This is generally true; but some very successful generals have used armies that break this rule. It is up to you to see if the extra cost for the 5th (or more) unit are worth it.
Most of the time, there are enough redundant units of similar function to avoid that.
5/If possible play an army you are familiar with, or whose style is familiar to you.
All you have played so far is 2 Almohad campaigns? Well, it might be good for you to start MP with the Almohads. You will know the units and what you can expect from them on the field.

Also note that the first unit you will choose is your general.

5./. Battlefield

Warning: the purpose of the following section is NOT to give strategy or tactical tips.

Once everyone has chosen armies the game will transfer everyone to the battlefield.

Froggy's note: Don't panic if you end up in an empty blue box for a while after advancing to the field, nothing is wrong and the game will eventually show the battlefield like in custom battle mode. It may take while though so don't get worked up if you are sat there looking at nothing for a long time.

Before deployment actually starts you can visit the map. This is very helpful if the map is unknown to you.

Once you are familiar enough with the map press continue. If you are the 1st attacker you will also have to choose the weather (just as in SP).

You will then see the deployment zone for each of the players, the armies of your allies and, of course, your own army.

Whether you attack or defend deployment is free, so deploy and group as you wish.
Be sure to face your enemy It silly advice, but too many players deploy with their flank wide open to enemy deployment zone
Attackers deploy facing down the minimap and defenders deploy facing up the minimap.

Once you are done deploying press ready, and wait for everyone to end up deployment. Then the actual battle will start.

Battles are similar to SP, but for a few specific points:
1/ NO PAUSE
2/ you have allies and opponent you can talk with; press T to talk to all, or Y to talk to your allies. Once a talk window is open, there is nothing else you can do (you can't select/move units). It can be quite dangerous in stressful situation.
3/ -ian is disabled (in VI 2.01)
4/ valour upgrade during battle is disabled (in VI)
5/ +2 morale for all units
6/ NO PAUSE (clear?)

During the game you will have messages similar to SP messages warning you that your general / your ally general / your enemy general is fleeing or is prisoner or dead.
You also have a message warning you if an enemy rout off the field; enemy units won't rally. The game is over for this enemy; it's time for you to regroup, stop chasing and fight other enemy armies.

If you are routed off the map, the battle will continue for your allies and enemies. Once you are routed your camera movement becomes free, enabling you to follow the action in a spectator seat. Routing is unfortunate, but it can be an opportunity to learn from other players and see their tactic without having to worry about managing your troops (it's too late for that, they are all gone).

The battle will end once one team has been routed.

III. The Art of War

1/. The skills of a victorious general

The greatest difference between beginners and more advanced players is not so much in army selection or click speed, but in army control and battlefield vision.

Veteran players have learnt to use TW interface to control their army more effectively. They have also learnt to handle the information flow in the game; battles can get confusing, and without pause you can have the feeling you can't be everywhere at the same time. Experienced players know where to look and what to look for.


The screen management and the interface can help you improve your view of the battlefield. In MP VI 2.01 -ian is not available, so you can't rely on that to
see the battlefield.
Short of -ian you can try to increase your resolution, and use the keys /*-+ to have a better view. Usually the higher, the better.

In some circumstances I love to use the minimap.
It is useful on a strategic level, if you are on a wing position it will tell you what is going on the other side of the map. Also, when you see colors moving very quickly / becoming blurry you know it is time to act fast; rush tends to be blurry on the map, making rush direction and target very easy to identify on the minimap.
On a tactical level the minimap is much less useful. Usually your camera will provide much more information than the minimap. One exception might be wood fight. If your faction color is not dark green / pale green it is tough to see green on green it might be easier to check your troop position and orientation on the minimap, than by trying to spot troops using the camera. I do extend the minimap to full size when fighting in woods to get a better idea of where my troops and enemy troops are. It's a little more difficult to click on units / position with extended minimap, but it can be worth doing on a few occasions.

Also, by double clicking on one unit your camera is moved to this unit's position.
This feature, together with adequate grouping strategy, enables you to go to one wing of your army with ease.

I group my units by small group of 2/3 units. (to group units, select multiple units with Ctrl + left click all units selected become whiter, then press G; a bar appears above units in the lower unit representation. I start grouping my left wing first, then unit in center, then units on the right wing. On the lower bar, the left wing group is on the left, the center group is in center, and the right wing group is on the right.
Therefore if I am threatened on my left, I don't have to click on units on the camera view, which is sometimes difficult from far away, I just double click on units on the
left side of my bar, and voila I am on the left

There are many different grouping strategies. Some like large groups organized by unit type; cavalry together, infantry together, missile together.
Try and test what you feel comfortable with, and what provides you with the best control. Groups are really useful; moving units one by one is way too slow.

You can select your whole army by pressing Ctrl + A. As all units selected will move together, you can easily move all your army around. Select all your army with Ctrl + A and just click where you want to go.

You can combine Ctrl + A and Alt + left click or Alt + right click. Alt + left click move your units to the clicking point without changing orientation of your troops (otherwise, all troops will look at clicking point... that can be very odd...).
Alt + right click will change the orientation of your units; they will now face the clicking point.

Ctrl + A combined with Alt + left click is a very efficient way to move your whole army to one spot at the beginning of the game.

You can use shortkeys with group, for that I'd recommend reading Froggy tip at the end of present guide.

Your own strategy will make your army more or less difficult to control and to move around.
If you keep your army together in one spot it will be easier for you to identify threats and react than if your army is split and your units are far away from each other. A split army is split awareness.

*disclaimer; I am not saying than splitting your army is not an efficient strategy or that it shouldn't be done, but when you get started with this game it is better to keep it simple to start with, and once you feel more comfortable you will be able to gradually increase the distance between groups eventually resulting in a split army.


Veterans can afford to leave wider spaces between their troops because they 'see' better, and have a better understanding of the army movements.
When you start playing MP be careful to keep your units together; it will be easier for all your units to help each other (not to mention proximity morale bonus), easier for you to see an enemy coming to attack one of them, and overall easier to control.
As you gain experience you will identify threats/opportunities earlier in your enemy's movement, you will gain more time to react, hence will be able to leave more space between your units.

*reminder; you do not need to pile up your units together... There is a hefty defense penalty for 'clustering'

Also, some units require some specific attention and can easily wander all around the map, resulting in more trouble in identifying threat / opportunity and are harder control. For example an army with 8 cavalry and 8 horse archers, although fun and possibly very efficient, is harder to control than a foot oriented army.
Try to limit troops that require micromanagement to make controlling your army easier.

2/ Training your army

a) General consideration

To choose an army one must understand how different in-game factors will impact its behavior on the battlefield.

Unlike the SP campaign, in MP you are relatively free to choose your army. This is not a campaign game, so your army is not modeled by your infrastructure or by the impact of maintenance costs on your budget. Also you only have to fight one battle with your army, and whether you win with 10 soldiers left or 500 does not make a whole lot of difference. Units are expendable, so don't hesitate to take some 'suicide' units.

In SP campaign an army is usually decided by your faction, your tech level, your income, and your preferences for certain unit types. When you have a good income you will be used to building elite troops with many upgrades to morale, armour, weaponry, all under the command of a general who imparts a valour bonus.

In MP all generals have a 0 command rating. All upgrades to valour, armour and weaponry must be purchased separately at additional cost. Those units that are so attractive in terms of power and ability (e.g. Janissary heavy infantry) are extremely expensive, and now cost matters.

This does impact MP army selection compared to SP quite drastically.
While SP valor distribution in one army is rather uniform (because it's mainly set by the General command rating), in MP, money, initial unit cost and upgrade choice will play a more important role. This means valour is unevenly distributed in MP armies.

*reminder on upgrade costs*
+1 Valor; cost * 1.7: +1 Attack, +1 Defense, +2 Morale
+1 Weapon; cost * 1.33: +1 Attack
+1 Armor; cost * 1.37: +1 Defense, +1 Armour
Defense is defense against hand to hand attack, Armour is against missile attack. There is a discount on missile units for whom upgrade cost are tweaked down.

The valour upgrade is the only one which boosts morale. As battles are decided by whoever routs first adequate morale is very important.

What is adequate morale? Obviously the higher, the better. If we go in more detail:
1/ Morale is not important for shooting. Your missile unit may be better off with armor upgrades than with valour upgrades. Although valour does increase missile efficiency, the difference is usually not big enough to justify the cost of the valour upgrade.
If accuracy is low, (which is the case for naptha throwers, handguns, arquebuse, etc...), then valour upgrades might prove marginally more useful. For normal bow, x bow and arbalest it is usually not worth considering.
2/ At morale 8 foot units will resist a frontal cavalry charge if at full strength and not too tired. At morale 10/12, units fight until reduced to 20%, even if surrounded, charged, etc... Morale above 12 get us into the Jedi world of never fleeing units. At morale 6/4; you are on a dangerous line - if things are not going well you have a potential early runner. Units at morale 6/4 require care, should be surrounded by allies and kept together (to enjoy as much number / proximity bonus as possible). At morale 2 or below the unit is likely to break on contact if heavily charged by cavalry, will rout if flanked or alone; any bad circumstances will be seen as an opportunity to run away from the field.
3/ Morale is slightly more important for foot units than for cavalry. Infantry units suffer from specific morale penalty against cavalry.

Depending on how much florin is available you will be able to afford valor upgrade to bring your units' morale up to 6, 8, or more.

Upgrade strategy:
Try to get your main infantry line to morale 8 (or more if you can afford it) with valor upgrade. This can be achieved either with little upgrade for elite units (such as Varangian guard, JHI, CMAA, etc...), or by pumping up units with a lesser status (Militia sergeant, highland clansmen, and Byzantine infantry).
As the cost of upgrade is a function of initial cost, and as lower status units are usually very cheap both strategies ends up being equivalent. There is not a lot of difference between a valour 2 Chivalric Men at Arms and a valour 4 Militia Sergeant...
It is much better to have one valour upgrade than one weapon upgrade + one armor upgrade: valour increases morale Increase valor first
For missile use left over money to buy armour to make them last longer against enemy missile.


There are a few other tips to know when choosing a MP army (same as in part II/ Veille d'armes):
1/ Spend all your money. ALL OF IT. There is no reason not to upgrade your troops to the maximum you can with the money you have.
2/ When buying upgrades buy valour first. The only exception might be missile units for which armour might be desirable, but even for that some very good players might make a good case for valour upgrade for missiles. Valour will provide the same upgrade than weapon + upgrade, for less florins with a morale upgrade on top
3/ Buy 16 units - a complete army. There might be some very special circumstances in which you might not want to... But that's very, very rare.
4/ Avoid buying more than 4 of the same unit. This is generally true; but some very successful generals have used armies that break this rule. It is up to you to see if the extra cost for the 5th (or more) unit are worth it.
Most of the time, there are enough redundant units with similar function to avoid that.
5/If possible play an army you are familiar with, or whose style is familiar to you.
All you have played so far is 2 Almohad campaigns? Well, it might be good for you to start MP with the Almohads. You will know the units and what you can expect from them on the field.


b) Units

When buying an army, it is important to have a basic idea of what troops are supposed to do and what their behavior is on the field.

SP experience will help, and so will Froggy unit guide. The basics are pretty much the same.

The devil is in the detail. As stated before, MP valor is not homogenous; in SP units valor comes mostly from the general command rating, so all units have the same valor for no additional cost. In MP, it all depends on the initial cost of each unit and the amount of money available.

Units behavior relative to each other change when there is too large a difference between their respective valour. A high valour spear unit would beat a low valour sword unit. A high valour sword would beat a low valour cavalry.

Let's have a look at units type by type

Archers, crossbows and arbalest

The principal use for those is their missile attack. Archers are available in all eras crossbow in High and Late, and arbalest in Late only.

Use those missiles troops to 1st kill enemy missile troops and 2nd target expensive enemy troops (if possible with low armor) and 3rd drive your opponent out of position.

All those are in general hopeless when it comes to melee fight. There are exceptions; hybrids, such as Janissary Infantry, or Golden Horde Warriors, and they will be discussed separately.

In doubt, take the most modern missile; arbalests outclass archers and crossbows in both range and power. Also take pavese when available. Your missile units are likely to be the target of enemy missile and the pavese will protect them.
Even if outdated in High or Late, it might be interesting to have one archer unit; their fast rate of fire can become interesting once heavier missile units have engaged each other. Keep them in reserves, and use them against a specific threat (a flanking horse archer... a specific incoming unit with low armor).
Crossbow and arbalest are slightly better at targeting moving units

An interesting characteristic to consider when buying archers; spacing. The wider the better. You can artificially increase spacing using loose formation, but some units are naturally in wide formation, such as Turcoman foot.

upgrade strategy: keep your missile units cheap; the main point of missile is to damage an expensive unit with as little money as possible. Missile units need some armor to survive against enemy missile fire. Valour increase accuracy, but not enough to make it worth buying.

Hybrid

Hybrids are sword / archers. They have decent melee statistics and a bow.

Hybrids are:
- Bulgarian Brigand
- Golden Horde Warrior
- Janissary Infantry
- Ottoman Infantry
- Longbowmen (when valour upgraded)
- Futuwwas
- Nizari
- Welsh Bandit (when valour upgraded)

Turcoman foot and Genoese sailor would be somehow weak hybrids.

The strength of the hybrid is in the missile upgrade discount, making it possible to upgrade them cheaply

Use them as your main line infantry, or in addition to your main line as a punchy reserve. Hybrids usually have a rather high attack and a rather low defense; they can be fragile.

Without upgrade only longbowmen and welsh bandit are interesting; their missile attack alone is worth having.

With adequate upgrade hybrids will nearly match more traditional infantry units. Make sure you use their missile attacks on enemy main infantry before the assault to make the fight even. Concentrated fire of 3 or 4 hybrids on units like militia sergeants or highland clansmen can melt those down quickly and more than make up for the somehow lower melee strength of hybrids.
If possible do not use them in the initial missile duel: hybrids, even with missile discount, are still very valuable and to lose some of them to missile fire is a bad economic decision. Loose some cheap crossbow first

Be sure to use them either on engage at will, or on hold.

Upgrade strategy: is key for hybrids: enjoy their missile discount bonus as much as you can Valour come first, as usual. You don't really need armour, as you should not use them to fight against enemy missile. Make sure that their morale is at least 8: for many hybrids (Janissary Infantry, Futuwwa, Nizari...), it will be quite easy to achieve. At morale 8 and more, they should be able to stop a frontal cavalry charge; but most hybrids have a somehow low defense, loss might be heavy on the initial charge.

Spears and pikes

Spears and pikes are all the units with armed with a spear or a spike giving them a bonus against cavalry (+1 Attack/+4 Defense for spears, +2 Attack /+6 Defense for pikes)
Pole arms (+3 Attack /+1 Defense) are handled separately.
Spears and pikes have the same function as in SP, holding, and with luck, killing, cavalry.

It is difficult to make a good use of spears/pikes in MP; cavalry is much faster than them, and most players will avoid running into spears with cavalry.
The other option: running after spear with cavalry is not really doable. Do not run after cavalry

Spears suffer from somewhat low morale, and it is very expensive to upgrade them to morale fighting level (= morale 8 = valour 3 for Order foot or valour 4 for chivalric sergeant).
Spears with higher morale either suffer from very bad attack and defense statistics (Nubian spearmen), or from being of smaller size (40 or 60 men instead of 100 men strong unit) with still very average attack/defense stats (Muwahid, Almughavar, or dismounted viking era cavalry).
The only exception might be the Swiss in late era, either Swiss pikemen and Swiss armored pikemen have decent morale and decent attack/defense stats.

Spears will be badly defeated by swords, will have a very hard time catching cavalry and suffer from poor morale that can only be fixed at extraordinary price.

At best, one can use spears as a deterrent against cavalry in the early phase of missile duel, or to deter cavalry from attacking one specific spot.
Most MP players prefer to counter cavalry with cavalry (therefore having less problem with speed issue), or rely on high valour sword unit.
If playing a low florins game (5000 or less) then the latter option is not possible anymore, making spear an alternative again... But a dangerous one.

In many situations you will be better off without spears and pikes, using the pikes or spears slot for another cavalry unit or another sword unit.

Pikes, only available in late era, share many of the sin of normal spears: low morale, high cost, and slow speed for their purpose.
The Swiss pikes (armored or not) are worth considering, mainly because their morale enable them to hold in melee well.

Overall: avoid spears and pikes.

upgrade strategy: do not take them.

Pole arms

Pole arms are units armed with a ... pole arm: those share a bonus against cavalry (+3 Attack /+1 Defense) and Armor piercing ability.
There is also units armed with axes (Militia sergeants, ghazi... etc...) which provides armor piercing, but not (+3 Attack /+1 Defense) against cavalry; those will be treated separately.

Most of the time, pole arms are a specialty unit dedicated to a few faction. The only exception being the Chivalric Foot Knight and Halberds. Both are slow, which make it difficult for them to attack cavalry.
Catholic Foot knight are only 40 but rather reliable.
Halberds have low morale and needs valour upgrade to get them to decent morale (valour 4 for 8 morale... which most of the time you won't be able to afford).

Pole arms are either high morale expensive units (like Catholic Foot knights, Janissary Heavy Infantry, Swiss Halberd) or low morale mid price units (Halberds, Billmen).
The latter will require valour upgrade which will end up making them the equivalent of the more expensive kind.

Pole arms are supposedly good at killing cavalry, but given they are more expensive than basic sword units, hence will be less upgraded, it becomes clear when looking at enclosed table that pole arms are only marginally better against cavalry and much worse against infantry.

Comparative chart for units in the 700/800 florins range.

Code Sample Halberd Billmen JHI MilSeg FMAA
Cost 867 867 725 737 860
Valour 2 2 0 3 3
Morale 4 6 8 6 8
Attack 3(6) 4(7) 5(8) 5 6
Defense 8(9) 6(7) 3(4) 6 7
Armor Piercing Y Y Y Y N
Total vs cav 15 14 12 11 13
Total vs inf 11 10 8 11 13
[/QUOTE]
Marginally less efficient that sword units, you will be better off with swords than with pole arms.
It can be interesting to use as a deterrent against cavalry, as many still avoid using cavalry against valour 3 billmen but care less if they face valour 4 militia sergeant.
The end result is still the same; many dead horses.
Pull them back quickly when facing an infantry line.

upgrade strategy: buy them some valour until they reach at least 8 morale. That will make them good enough to fight cavalry; lower than that, you take chance they might rout on contact on a cavalry charge.

Light Cavalry

Light cavalry are all non-horse archer fast cavalry, those including:

- Pict Cavalry (viking era)
- Alan mercenary cavalry
- Steppe Cavalry
- Saharan Cavalry

... And that's it

In VI 2.01, catholic faction can't have light cavalry. But, some factions have some fast horse archer which, with some upgrades, can easily be both horse archer and light cavalry.

Light cavalry are statistically weak and very cheap fast cavalry.

Being fast you can use them to attack enemy missile units, and retreat before opposition can react. That requires some micromanagement.
Being so cheap they are expendable. A valour 1 Alan mercenary cavalry can be a nuisance, a low effectiveness nuisance, but it's only 340 florins. If for that cost they rout 1 enemy missile unit, and wear out enemy cavalry, that's still a good payback.
Even if I classify them as 'expendable' try to keep them alive as long as possible; they have a rather high likelihood of routing during the initial skirmish phase and they will be lost if you use them to close from the border of the map, because you will not have time to rally them.

They can also be used for flanking and pursuing routers just like other cavalry, but possibly with a lower effectiveness (as their attack and defense are not nearly as good).

upgrade strategy; Light cavalry are very cheap; that gives you the option of upgrading them... or not. Be aware that a cavalry unit with less than 4 morale will have problems attacking alone against a dense pack of enemy units (they will be routed by enemy numbers, even if not attacked). Therefore you may need to have at least v2 Saharan / Steppe cavalry, and even then they will stay fragile. You can upgrade them further, then they will be able to compete with non upgraded heavy cavalry, but at a slightly higher cost.

Horse Archers

horse archers are either light and fast cavalry with a bow, or a medium cavalry with a bow.

The light and fast sort;
- Horse Archers
- Turcopoles
- Turcoman Horse
- Mounted crossbow
Those are in the 250/300 florin range. Properly upgraded they can serve as light cavalry.

The medium cavalry sort;
- Faris
- Mameluk Horse Archer
- Szekely
- Golden Hord Horse Archer
Those are all at 375 florin with nearly identical statistics. Note that Szekely and Golden Hord Horse Archer are fast.

The Special/heavy unit sort;
- Boyars
- Sipahi of the Porte
- Steppe Heavy Cavalry
Those cost around 450/550 florin


Whether they are fast, heavy or medium they cannot replace dedicated infantry missile units. Horse archer cannot compete with regular foot archer/ missile.
Depending on era, maps and overall conditions horse archers can either be a waste or key to victory. In Early era the medium/ heavy kind can compete with regular cavalry, and in early missile duel are also easier to handle for horse archer. In Early era battles many choose Novgorod or Hungary to have access to their specific horse archers (szekelys, and boyars)
In high era or late, regular cavalry get heavier and tougher to beat for horse archer: upgrade will be required for horse archer to compete with regular cavalry. Also due to the appearence of the pavise and crossbow infantry/cavalry missile duels get even harder.

The missile attack from horse archers can be very frustrating to handle... for both the owner and the opponent of the horse archers.
Like when using regular missile units, try to target low armour/ high cost unit to maximize effectiveness. Try to keep horse archers available for the end of the missile duel, or try to use them without opposition from enemy missile units.
It is a standard trick to come with one horse archer on a flank, prompting the enemy to move one of his missile units, then move away before the enemy got a chance to aim, come back, move away....

Also, horse archer are really annoying in endgame, when there is more space to move around, when units are tired, and when you can pick on isolated units.

To sum it up: not as melee effective as regular cavalry (with a low charge value), and with a missile not as good as regular foot missile, they still can be very annoying and very versatile. They require some micromanagement and patience. I would not recommend buying a lot of horse archer when starting to play online, as it might be too difficult to use them to full effectiveness. Buy one or two, and as you become more experienced try to see if you can manage more.

upgrade strategy: really depends on what you want to do with your horse archer. Will they be annoyance used to shoot at vulnerable units and get your opponent out of position? Then a valour 0 horse archer or turcopoles/turcomen can be good enough. Players hate it when a v0 Turcopole is still around in endgame and shooting at their expensive militia sergeant.
Do they also need to be fast melee cavalry? Then a valour 2/3 turcopole/man will help, or a valour 0 szekely.
Do they need to compete with heavy cavalry? A valour 2 szekely can do that (although at a higher cost, and still with lower charge), and Boyars or Steppe Heavy Cavalry can hold against chivalric knights.
All that can be done, but with a premium compare to normal cavalry, and with a lower charge value.

Sword

Sword units are the mainstay of most MP armies. With sword units, I also includes units such as militia sergeants, (with armor piercing but no bonus against cavalry), as most players view them as nearly identical.

Swords can be split in two categories;

- heavy sword infantry; such as Chivalric Men At Arms (CMAA), Feudal Men At Arms (FMAA), Jom Viking; those are somehow cheap, of average moral, with good attack and defense stats.
- Light sword infantry; such as Arab Infantry, Ghazi, Highland Clansmen, Celtic Warriors, Fanatics; those are often very cheap, have a low armor (somehow vulnerable to missile) and low defense, but a good attack.


The heavy infantry is the core of many MP armies. For a given amount of money, in 1 to 1, there is no unit that will defeat them. Properly upgraded, they'll have morale and defense rating high enough to defeat a cavalry charge.

Most games include 2 lines of heavy infantry fighting each other until one break.

The main weakness of heavy sword infantry is that they get tired rather quickly. Avoid running too much with them, and leave chasing router to cavalry units. Once heavy sword infantry get tired, they become vulnerable again to cavalry charge.

Light sword infantry is use for flanking, or in games with demanding setting, such as desert or winter season game. For those settings, heavy sword infantry might just get too heavy and will be tired too fast.
I have also used very cheap light infantry as a bait, to assault pavese line, or on suicide commando action. After all a ghazi is only 175 florins...
With a low defense value, light sword infantry is vulnerable to brutal cavalry charge.


upgrade strategy: for heavy sword infantry, be sure that you reach a morale of at least 6. The higher you can afford, the better.
For light sword infantry, it really depends on their role. If they are an alternative to heavy sword in demanding setting (desert, winter), then again the higher the better. If they are flanker / suicide commando, you might be able to save some florin by keeping them cheap (but then pick a light infantry with a good charge and high morale).

Cavalry

Cavalry is a very important part of MP armies. Faster than infantry, and with interesting impact on enemy morale, they are as important as the heavy sword infantry for most players.

For our purpose I'll make no distinction between medium cavalry (whose base cost is in the 300 fl range) and heavy cavalry (600+ florins); with a couple of upgrade, medium cavalry is equivalent to base heavy cavalry in terms of both cost and fighting abilities.

In team game, cavalry can quickly move to help one ally or rout an opponent: watching cavalry movement usually tells a lot about where enemy plans to attack.
Cavalry as a group of unit are interesting; only 40 they are quite vulnerable to long fights, they may face dedicated anti-cavalry units which are quite effective; on the other hand, they have good fighting abilities (not as good as heavy sword infantry) and high charge value. Combined with its speed, cavalry is the unit of choice to throw at an enemy gap, or behind his line.
Frontal cavalry attack on a fresh infantry line will fail.
In endgame cavalry becomes very valuable;
- enemy troops are often scattered all around the map which makes it easier for cavalry to flank and pick opponent 1 by 1.
- Enemy troops are more tired; cavalry loses versus a fresh infantry line, but can easily win vs. a tired half depleted infantry line, even if the cavalry is itself tired and half depleted

upgrade strategy: the real heavy cavalry can be used at valour 0; their morale is good enough, and a valour upgrade is not likely to make enough difference to justify the cost. For medium cavalry (the Polish retainer, Ghulam cavalry and the like) you can choose to either upgrade them and make them just like catholic knights for roughly the same cost, or you can try to have your cavalry on the cheap, and divert more money to your heavy infantry line.

Artillery

First and most important many players do not like artillery in their games, reasons for this can be anything from general sniping catapults is not historically realistic or that general sniping catapults upset the balance of the game. Whatever the reason might be you will find that many games are hosted with the name no art, respect this rule if you want to be invited to more games.

Even if the name of the game does not include the no art you should ask before game starts if it is ok to bring artillery to the game since many players and hosts take for granted that artillery will not be used. There is a problem with asking this though, since when you ask and the answer happen to be yes the enemy can safely assume they will be facing artillery and thus choose troops and deploy in a manner to counter this, i.e. the element of bringing a nasty surprise is gone.

In the end asking or not asking is up to you, just be prepared that bringing artillery when not having asked can cause some angry reactions from other players, rightfully or not.

In early and high era there are no gunpowder artillery to choose from so the options are; ballista, mangonel, trebuchet and catapult.

The ballista is a weapon that you do not need in multiplayer either for siege or ordinary battle.

The mangonel and trebuchet can be useful for siege against a large castle but their unability to change direction of fire makes them virtually useless in a normal battle.

Since siege battles are even more rare then the use of artillery it will be enough to say that it is vital to deploy your artillery in such a way that it can demolish walls and towers enabling u to reach all areas of the castle without having to knock on the door...

This leaves us with the catapult....

The catapult can be, if used correctly, a battle winning weapon at a small cost.

Other considerations

The first unit you choose will be your general.

Most of the time, players pick a cavalry unit so that they can get their general out of trouble quickly.
Generals are also often rather cheap; after all, you are not supposed to use him in melee, unless you want to take the chance to see him killed, and most of your army routing.
If you take a catholic faction and have access to order knight (Santiago, Templar, Hospitaller, Teutonic), you might want to choose one as general as they won’t rush the enemy at the worst opportunity; they are not impetuous.

Some like to pick horse archer as general; they are cheap, often fast, and if on skirmish, they might get out of trouble on their own without micromanagement.

In very low florins games (5000 florin per army or less), you might want to choose a peasant general, and withdraw right at the beginning of the game. This way, you will not suffer from a devastating (at low florin, it is truly, painfully devastating) general death, and you save some money to spend on the other 15 units.

c/ army list

This a list of some of the armies I played with... or against.

The following signs are used

V followed by a number stands for valour upgrade (the number being by how much valour has been increased)
W stands for weapon upgrade.
A stands for Armour upgrade.

If no indication, assume v0w0a0; no upgrade.

10K or 15K stands for 10 000 florins or 15 000 florins which is the cost of one army.

Unit abbreviations;
CK; Chivalric Knights
FK; Feudal Knights
Byz inf; byzantine infantry
VG; Varaguian Guard
CMAA; Chivalric Men At Arms
FMAA; Feudal Men At Arms
HA; Horse Archer
FFK; Feudal Foot Knights
CFK; Chivalric Foot Knights
pav; pavese (pav xbow, pavese crossbow, pav arb, pavese arbalester)


To make it easy, let's make a base core army that all (catholic) factions can play with;

in high era 10k, it would be something like this;

3 Chivalric Knights (1 is general)
1 Feudal Knights
4 pav x bow (armor with remaining money)
4 FMAA v3
4 CMAA v2

Now depending on which faction, feel free to tweak that army bit by bit.

- If you play Hungary, take 2 szekelys, instead of 2 knights
- If you play England, take 1 longbow instead of 1 pavese x bow.
- ...

This way you can get a feel for each specific faction, while playing a competitive army and learning the basics.

Once you'll get used to the speed of MP (compared to SP), and will reach a better control of your army, then change the mix of the different units you use more drastically.

In that 'beginner' army, I choose to put more infantry that many MP players would routinely play with.
I think it's easier to control infantry over cavalry, so more infantry is something which might help you get a handle on your army.

But with time, you can move to;

3 Chivalric Knights (1 is general)
3 Feudal Knights
4 pav x bow (armor with remaining money)
3 FMAA v3
3 CMAA v2w1

And again, customized a little with each faction.

Once you will be used to this kind of army, then, move to pretty much whatever you want Try armies with 8 horse archer All cavalry All infantry Hybrid Turks


More armies; I am not saying those are optimal, just example.

Hungary 10k high;

1 Chivalric Knight
2 Feudal Knights
4 Szekelys v2
3 pavese x bow (remaining money on armor)
3 FMAA v3
3 CMAA v2

English, Kalle's fun army, 10k high

4 CK
4 Templar Knight
4 Longbow
2 pavese x bow
2 FMAA V4

French, 10 K early / high, light army for desert / winter game

1 FK
4 Hobilar v3
3 pav x bow (archer in early)
4 Highlander v4
4 MS v4
1 Fanatic v1
1 Turcopole v1


Turks, 10 k early

3 Armenian Heavy Cavalry v1
4 Alan mercenary Cavalry v2
4 Turcomen Horse v3
2 Turcomen foot v2a1
3 futuwwa v3


3/ Tactics

a) opening moves

First be sure to have a look at the deployment part of this guide (II. 5/). As opposed to SP, deployment is free for all players, whether you attack or defend

Deployment can be critical. So be sure to take map features into consideration, use wood and hill to your advantage, and be sure that you can help and receive help easily from your allies.

If you expect to be attacked quickly, deploy as far back as possible. If you want to attack quickly, deploy closer to enemy zone; that will limit reaction time, and you will take less incoming fire.

During deployment, you can spot:

- artillery: The position and count of the cannons are shown on the minimap as white/grey dots. Like buildings.
- you can hear enemy units when they are close to your deployment zone: that can help you avoiding bad surprise. Go to the border of your deployment zone and listen if you hear any horse noise or foot noise. Some players may deploy one cavalry close to your zone so that you hear something, and still deploy way back.

The deployment circle appears when players press on the deployment button, and disappear once they press on the ready button.
Once everyone has deployed, the battle begin.

If you want to move your army to one specific spot, remember the ctrl + A, then alt - left click or alt - right click command. All you army will move like one men to the designated spot, keeping the same formation.

Usually the two armies get closer to each other, and then start shooting to each other.

The purposes of shooting enemy units are
- try to damage valuable enemy units (if possible. high cost, low armor units, or units which might be a specific problem for your strategy; i.e. if you have a lot of cavalry, maybe you shall start shooting those billmen)
- try to move the enemy out of position, and / or attack you: most of the time, your opponent won't accept being shot, and will attack to make it stop.
Being attacked is a good news: it is more difficult to attack, mainly because it tires unit more, and it is more difficult to coordinate. Defense has an easier job taking the flank of one attacker. In team game this advantage is even greater, as team attack requires even more coordination than a 1v1 attack.

Hills and woods are particularly valuable for missile duel. Woods give very good protection against missile (do not even bother shooting a unit in wood). Hills give some protection, higher range and higher lethality.

Set the line of our archer or pavese at the front of your army. Put them on hold position / hold formation if they have a high enough defense rating (6 or more), this way they might be able to stop a cavalry charge, which would give you enough time to trap the attacking cavalry.
If you could not afford to pay for armor, you may still want to put your missile line on hold position / hold formation.

The purpose of the missile duel is to damage the expensive enemy units, still, it is not recommended to shoot at them directly (although, in some occasion, if you rush, it might your best option), and you need to shoot enemy pavese / archer first.
If you do not hit enemy missile units first, those will shoot at your missile units, and then once your missile units are gone, shoot at your troops. This is likely to be more damaging for you than for your enemy.
You need to reduce enemy missile units to irrelevance, while keeping your missile strong enough to make some damage on enemy infantry and cavalry later.
Once an enemy missile units is very tired and down to 30/20, you can nearly ignore that unit.
What matters is; having more shooters, keeping more ammo, being less tired. That way, when enemy missile will become insignificant, you can still have some shooting power, and maybe enough shooting power to get your enemy to move / attack you, and meet your objectives.

So, keep in mind; I need to keep my shooters alive, I need not to be too tired, I need to keep ammo. The difficulty is to do that, and still disable enemy missile.

How to win a missile duel:

- A very simple solution: bring more missile units than your enemy One drawback: you have less hand to hand units than your enemy. Up to you to assess if you can afford that, and if that outweigh the advantage of defending.
- As said above use map feature to your advantage: hills and woods are very useful.
- Loose formation is also very useful, it can keep your units alive, with the small inconvenient of losing some shooting efficiency, and being slightly less maneuverable.
- Try to keep a fresh missile unit in reserve.
- If you are winning the missile duel (shooting enemy missile units faster than they shoot you), expect your enemy to try to rout your missile unit first. Usually with a fast cavalry raid. Be attentive to enemy cavalry move.
- If you are losing the missile duel, you need to talk to your allies in teamgame. They may have a spare missile to share. If not, you need either to try some cavalry skirmish to get rid of enemy missile (dangerous), or you need to move; either to a better position, enabling you to avoid enemy fire, or to attack enemy position before getting shot. If your troops are very heavy, and enemy missile very tired, close to out of ammo, you can also just stand the enemy missile fire: it may not hurt you as much as attacking the enemy too quickly.

During the missile duel, there are plenty of cavalry skirmish whose purpose is to rout enemy missiles. Those cavalry skirmish can be more or less elaborate. Look at enemy cavalry movement. Make sure that your counter unit has an easy access to enemy possible path of attack.
Many different traps have been set, many new comes by the day; sometimes a fake attack on one side is followed by another attack from the opposite direction. Sometimes the attack purpose is to draw your cavalry out of their position to shoot them or cut them to piece. There are plenty of different situations. As those skirmishes use a small number of troops, it allows for a lot of micromanagement and fun maneuvering.

Many players complain that pavese wars are too slow and boring; I'd say; you need two players to have a pavese war; your enemy and yourself. Blame it on yourself
Pavese war can be avoided, it usually involves some odd strategic positioning (in teamgame), or rush, or a lot of light cavalry action.
Pavese war can be boring; when two lines of pavese just shoot each other to death, it can get bothersome. But I think that then, both players lost sight of what they need to achieve: shoot expensive enemy troops, draw enemy out of position. Pavese war get boring, when we lose the purpose of them.

Rush or not rush

There are various opinions on rush, and how enjoyable they might be. Rush can get you a bad reputation. On a few maps, you have little choice but to rush a position.

Rush, most of the time, starts at unit selection; if you want to rush, do not take missile units, or fast firing ones (archers, longbow), and take cavalry and sword units. Set up upfront to minimize the distance to your opponent. Then walk to him, and kill him. A greater number of hand to hand units shall help you prevail.
When you face a rush: do not panic First, you need to warn your allies. 1 rusher in teamgame can be very short lived if properly countered by 2 or more defense players. In teamgame, rush requires coordination, which makes it a little bit harder to do.
Once you have warned your allies, move quietly your troops: take your missile behind your line. Shorten a little bit your line. Try to see what the pattern of attack is, and adapt to it: where is enemy cavalry going? How are you going to match it. It is difficult to coordinate a good rush, in most cases, there are holes in the line, and uncovered flanks. Use that to your advantage. If in teamgame, try to make the attack last longer, so that your allies got the time to come.

b) middle-game

In most games, after the initial shooting phase there is a melee phase when units fight hand to hand.

Usually this phase starts either after;
- A cavalry raid getting build up: one cavalry attacks the enemy missile units, opponent answer with an additional cavalry, then attacker sends another cavalry to attack the incoming defense cavalry, defense sends another cavalry, so attacks sends another cavalry, or maybe an infantry, so defenders do the same, etc, etc... You understand the idea. In general the defenders win, mainly because defense is much closer from the build up point. Build up melee are often on one axis, so they are easy to flank and rout.
- One army is getting shot up: one side won decisively the shot up phase, and the other is losing valuable units due to missile units' fire. Most of the time the army getting shot up will attack to avoid missile fire. When done correctly the whole army attack at once (i.e., different from the build up scheme above).

When in the melee phase, try to assess if the line of melee is continuous or not, if your match up are good or not (i.e., if you have pole arms, you want them to face cavalry), and how are you reserve positioned to take advantage of a hole / a flank, or defend against someone flanking / going to a hole.

It is easier to get better match up and better placed reserves when defending than attacking. That's why it is important to win the missile duel. (unless, that is, that your army instead of missile got so much more melee power than it can overcome those factors)

The melee phase is likely to end when one (or more) unit will be able to go behind enemy line and attack in their back. The unit can either go through a hole in the line, or on one side.
More rarely, raw frontal power can also break up enemy line directly. A good match up can achieve that quickly.

Reserves are difficult to balance: either you keep some reserves so that you can match an enemy trying to flank you, or to be able to go around an enemy and attack him in his back, or you keep less reserve, have more units fighting in line, and might win by just killing enemy line.

In my opinion, reserves are more useful in high florins games; then you can afford to keep units fighting in first line longer, and have your reserves moving on one wing, or behind line more easily.
At low, and very low florins, it is dangerous not to attack with everything. Out numbering penalties might be enough to tip the balance, and melee lines break much faster with less loss. I'll play with less reserves at low florins and commit more troops to the frontline.

Your general is your last reserve. To be honest; try not to use it. A dead general is a sure way to end the melee phase. Once you'll have enough time for micromanagement, you can try to bait your enemy in attacking your general, and trap incoming troops. Keep an eye on enemy general; they are very valuable target, but they can also be traps.
When starting to play MP, most of the time, one is too busy to really focus on general management; if you know you won't have time at a critical moment to safeguard your general, try to put him in a safe place to start with.

During the melee phase try to check (keeping an eye on icons down the screen) if one of your unit become inactive then assign immediately a new duty to that unit.

Once you see part of the enemy frontline routing, use part of the pursuing units to rout enemy units which are still fighting.

c) end-game

You have broken the enemy line, or not... But the game is not over yet, there are remnant of enemy troops everywhere, and your troops are also scattered all across the map

In endgame, one variable becomes more important: fatigue. Your units are very tired... Most of the time, they are also half depleted, and you have much less units available, so you can't expect morale bonus from supportive units.
What that means is: your units are much closer from the routing line than they were at the beginning of the game.

A cavalry charge which would have failed against a fresh, full strength, men at arms units, will now be successful. As the routing point is much closer, cavalry charge are much more effective.

To win in end game, you need to focus on fatigue management: i.e. do not run unless you really need to, try to stay at quite tired / very tired, and you need cavalry.

To prepare a good endgame, be careful with your cavalry in melee, to be sure you keep some for endgame, do not run all over the map chasing a routing enemy: you'll be tired, and a fresher opponent will rout you easily, and try to stay grouped.

In other words, to prepare a good end game, you must be efficient in pursuing your enemy in melee phase. Use cavalry for that purpose. Keep your infantry grouped after melee. Once you have the 'enemy routed off the field' message, do not lose energy and troops fatigue getting more kills: immediately stops pursuing (enemy won't rally if you got that message), and focus on the next enemy, walk to him (do not run), and help your allies defeating him. Exhausted units are just good enough to trigger a mass rout on your side: they'll rout, and all your other units will follow: so rest them to get them back to very tired or quite tired.

d) Team tactics

Most of what have been said above assume a 1v1 situation. Some MP games are 1v1, some teamgames are played like multiples 1v1.

A few elements change in teamgames.

There is a potential to create such outnumbering so as to rout very quickly one full army.

Morale penalty:
Outnumbered 2 to 1: up to -4 (range = about 75 meters)
Outnumbered 10 to 1: up to -12 (range = about 75 meters)

To fight at 2 armies versus 1 give heavy morale penalty, more power to quickly kill the first line, and so many units that one will find its way to the lonely army back. The end result is: one army routed, and minimal loss for attackers.... who can freely move to the next army.

Such a maneuver is called doubling. Most MP tactics are designed to be able to double the enemy at attack point, and to avoid being doubled.

When beginning to play MP, the most obvious way to avoid being doubled is to be very close from your allies.

Not only you don't want to be doubled, you also don't want your allies to be doubled; once one army is gone, it will trickle down and soon all armies will be gone.

Stay close from your allies for your mutual protection.

Sure, a nice hill in a corner is a tempting defensive position when coming from SP: and for good reasons... But in MP, it will be useless if your allies are all dead and you face 4 armies. Corner camping, if your allies can't get to you, is a sure way to let your allies being doubled. And they will die outnumbered, routing very quickly, without taking out many enemies. Eventually you will face many armies, mostly intact.

So, if your allies can't make it to that corner hill you like without being completely overrun you got to fight by the side of your allies, and forget that corner hill.

If you are getting doubled; don't despair, maybe your allies are on their way for help. Your objective is to last as long as possible. Obviously the higher the morale (or the higher the florins), the longer you will last. Double are often also rush. So the first step are the same as against a rush: 1st warn your allies, 2nd breath, and move quietly. Take your missile behind your infantry line. Shorten your line a bit, add ranks to your unit, eventually set your line on hold position, hold formation. You may also want to save a couple of fast moving units from the likely disaster, like your general, and maybe some other cavalry.

If one of your ally is doubled: well, it means that you were not all close enough from each other to deter double to start with. Next time, stick all together
But let's say one of your ally send a message that he is getting doubled. You got a very short amount of time to decide if you want to rescue your ally, or if you want to double the remaining opposite army
You MUST make a decision very quickly. If you wait, your ally will rout, and you won't be able to help him. Soon the armies that doubled your ally will come, and you will be outnumbered. Either help your ally, or double the enemy before your enemy got a chance to regroup.

Teamgames also impacts other aspect of the game. Missile duel is different as one can transfer missile unit to either 1/ help if one army is running out of ammo, or getting shot or 2/ take advantage of a won duel to shoot enemy infantry.

Melee is also different. On top of holes in your line, you have to watch holes between armies, so that the whole line is continuous.
One of the most common 'hole maker' is badly coordinated attack. If one army attacks without warning, it moves forward ahead of its allies, and is easier to flank. So try to move all your armies together, and watch your allies' moves so that you can support them if they attack.

As your control of your army, and your battle awareness improve with experience, you'll be able to let more space between you and your allies' armies, opening up different tactic possibilities.
But when starting, keep it simple, and stay close from your allies.

IV. Others

1./. Game analysis

Many tools have been developed to help online players make some sense of the confusion in a battle.

One of the most useful tool is included within MTW / VI: it's the replay viewer. To watch a game can be very interesting, and, in a replay, you can pause the game and use -ian (additional command line which enable total free camera) to get sure you are not missing anything.
After an exciting and interesting game, you might forget to save the replay. It's not a problem. Just go to your SaveGames / Battle directory, and rename the file tmp.vri to any other name you'd like. Tmp.vri file is the replay file of the last battle you have played.
Replay files of different MTW/ VI versions are not compatible.

Another interesting too included with MTW / VI are logfiles. Those are text files summing up all the units involved in a battle, their upgrades, and their performance (how many enemy have they killed, how many got killed).
Text files can be open with Notepad, but are not really convenient to read.

Many dedicated players developed 'logfile readers' able to sum up logfiles and provide the most relevant information.

Most of the logfile readers are downloadable programs. You will find them in dedicated forum or clan website.

[FF]Annie developed a web-based logfile reader where you upload your logfile to get a clear view of which units were engaged in the battle.

[FF]Annie logfile reader

It has already been mentioned in the unit selection chapter, but it is worth mentioning again: [FF]Almicar Army Builder.

Almicar army builder

After a battle, feel free to speak with your allies and opponent about they way the game went and ask for advice. Many players will gladly indulge in sharing their thought about a game. It's a great way to learn, and a great way to meet new players.


2./. TW social life: Elmo's guide to surviving the game scene


Are you new to the world of online gaming or having problems coping with the childishness, foul language, harassment and general chaos that is a part of many gaming lobbies? This guide will help smooth your entry into the sometimes harsh reality that many gamers find so unappealing. We will discuss methods of eliminating the affect obnoxious players have on individuals and the games they play. We will also discuss the good points and bad points of joining a clan or non-clan group of players. Lastly, we will show you how to find the right clan or non-clan group to fit your playing time and personality. The reward of playing online and being an active participant in a game community is many. You will be amazed how many close friendships you will establish with people of all ages, nationalities, religions and social status.



Obnoxious Players and How To Get Rid of Them



There always seems to be one or more individuals or groups of players that can ruin the friendly atmosphere of a game lobby. Their methods are many: spamming, foul language, harassing messages directed at certain people, rumor spreading, escaping out of a game once it starts, and Team Killing (TKr's) and the occasional cheating.

What is a Spammer? A person who interrupts the ability of other players to communicate in a game lobby by rapidly filling the chat screen with words, phrases or other nonsense, making it difficult if not impossible to chat.



Stop Spamming, Foul Language and Harassment



1. Use the ignore command. Eliminating the offending player may be as easy as putting the him on ignore. The Medieval Total War Gamespy lobby offers the command; #ignore player's name to ignore someone you find offensive. If your chat server does not offer this feature, contact the administrator or moderator and ask for it to be included.

2. Politely ask the player to stop. Sometimes a player in his eagerness to play, may spam to get someone to join his game, use foul language to get attention, or harass you to play with him. Asking him to stop will normally work with this type of offender.

3. Ignore the player as if he doesn't exist. Most obnoxious players are starved for attention and like it when they get a reaction out of someone in the lobby. When no reaction is given, the player will normally stop after a short period of time.

4. Use private chat. If your chat server has a private messaging command, you may chat with other players without having to use the main chat room and avoid the hassle..

5. In extreme cases, after all other methods have been tried and the behavior continues, you should contact the server administrator to request that this player be banned from the server.





Rumors are normally spread in a game's forum and often involve 2 or more clans accusing each of cheating, lying, or some other type of offense, Some players spread rumors to tarnish the image of a well respected player, and lastly some players are Trolls.

What is a Troll? A troll is a player who posts in a game forum just to illicit a reaction from players. His posts are opinionated, rude, sarcastic, disagreeable, condescending and insulting. In reality, the player may not agree with anything he posts and may not even be a player of the game in question.




How to Stop Rumors




1. Ignore the forum posts and continue on with the discussion as if it never occurred. This may be very hard sometimes, but given the anonymity of the internet, it is a useless proposition to argue with this type of player or group. If you belong to a clan, you must realize that your actions are a reflection of your clan's image to others and if others see you arguing, cursing, and stooping to the level of the harassing player(s) they will think badly of your clan. It is a no win situation. If you ignore the argumentative player's posts, the player will eventually get tired of baiting you and stop.

2. Contact the forum moderators or administrator and have the player banned. If a player's posts are threatening in any way, or would be considered harassment by law, you should immediately contact the forum's administrator and have the player banned.

3. Change your online nickname and inform your trusted online friends of your new name. The internet's anonymity can work in your favor too.



The Escaper and Team Killer (TK'r) is more troublesome in some games than others. If you are playing in a game ladder or competition, the escaper or Team Killer can ruin the fun for all. In 2v2 and up team games it can be troublesome, because the Escaper or TK'r gives the advantage to the team with the most players left. Worse yet, the Escaper can put the game out of sync and everyone is dropped to the game lobby or their desktop.




How to Eliminate Escapers, Team Killers & Cheaters




1. Use the ban command. Some games offer you, as host, the ability to ban individual players from your games. Medieval Total War has the command: #ban player's name This command will ban the individual from joining your games in the future. If your game doesn't offer this feature, ask the server's administrators or the game's developers to add it.

2. Explain to the Escaper that his actions take the game out of sync and to please stay in the game until the end. He may be unaware that his escaping after losing is affecting the other players in the game. This will NOT work with the Team Killer since he already knows the consequences of his actions.

3. Keep a list of offending players. This is where being a member of a clan, with its own private forum, is invaluable. Most clans, keep a running list of Escapers, Team Killers, and suspected Cheaters. Once you have a list, refer to it often when you are hosting or playing. NOTE: It is normally against most game forum rules for players to make accusations about other players, whether they be true or not, so avoid this mistake at all costs. You will appear as a whiner and the forum moderators will be forced to discipline you.

4. Password your games. Most games allow a password to be used to keep undesirables out when you are hosting. Use private chat to invite players or have your friends become familiar with your normal passwords so they can join when you are hosting.

5. Boot/kick the player out of your game. Most games offer a boot command or a kick command. Medieval Total War uses the command: #kick player's name to take a player out of the game before it starts. Remember: Etiquette requires you to ask the player to leave first, if he doesn't, you may boot him without appearing a bad host.



Clans: Are They Right For You?



Joining a clan has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on an individual's personality, social tastes, and time for participating. Each clan has its own set of rules, codes of conduct, and other requirements for becoming a member and it is up to you to decide if they are right for you. Here are some of the items you should consider before joining a clan.



1. Do you enjoy playing team games or do you prefer playing 1v1? If you are more of a 1v1 player who doesn't like to depend on others to help you win, you should look for a clan which is more focused on individual performance and less on team play. Normally clans have both types of players, so make sure to ask one of the clan members about what they are looking for in a player. If you are not the type of player who likes to socialize, then joining a clan is probably not a good choice for you.

2. Is the average age level of clan members important to you? Some clans are started by players who are similar in age. You may feel more comfortable with a clan consisting of players similar in age who may have more in common with you than a younger/older group. A lot of times it is not the age that is important more than the maturity level of the clan members. I have seen a lot of older players act like children in the forums and games, while a lot of younger players have impressed me with their mature interactions with others.

3. Do you play just for fun and socializing, or are you more focused and want to be competitive with the top players in the community? You can do both if you like, but if you lean more to the competitive side, you will want to find a clan that can offer you the skill level you are looking for. Find out who the top players are and what clan they belong to, then participate in their forum and play with them often. If you like what you see, then say you would be interested in joining and would like to know the requirements. NOTE: Some clans only recruit at certain times and some do not accept players who request membership. Do not be offended by this. These rules were established to keep trouble makers out and to make sure that each new member's personality fits in with the rest of the clan. In the long run it is to your benefit the clan you are interested in is so particular about its members.

4. Do you prefer a clan with a large membership or do you want one that is smaller? If you are interested in a clan because you always want to have someone familiar to play with, then a larger clan may be the right fit for you. With its large membership, more than likely you will always have a known teammate to play with when you get online. If you want a more intimate relationship with your clan members, the smaller clan may be the one with which you will be most satisfied. Smaller clans are good for establishing close friendships but you have to realize, when a member leaves, it has a greater impact on the clan's survival than it would in a larger one.

5. How much participation are you willing and able to give to the clan? Some clans require you to play competitive matches, fight in clan battles, get involved in clan activities, participate in its forum, do game research or act as a trainer for new members. Some people enjoy a lot of clan duties, and some would prefer to have a casual participation in the everyday business of the clan's inner workings. If you enjoy being active in a clan, you will need to find one that is highly structured and has jobs set aside for each member. If you do not want to become involved as much, you need to find a clan that is less structured.



Given all of these considerations, if you decide you would like to be a member of a clan, the following is the proper way to go about it.



The Proper Way To Request Membership In A Clan



Once you have chosen a clan which you would like to join. You should do the following:

1. Play with a lot of the members and let them get to know you. Do not ask a member you have never played or chatted with, to allow you to join his clan. Most clans are paranoid about spies, trouble makers, etc. If they do not know you well, they will not consider you as a member. If you ask too many times they will see this as an attempt by an enemy clan spy trying to infiltrate their forum.

2. Participate in the public area of the clan's forum. If you are a veteran player or exceptionally talented, maybe offer some advice on tactics, strategy, game mechanics etc. Be careful not to appear condescending or a braggart, because that will alienate you quickly with many of the clan members. If you are fairly new to the game, then ask for advice or ask questions about which units to pick, what type of strategy to use or anything else game related. Most clan members will be happy to give you advice and will remember you in the game lobby. Also, remember to thank them for their help, since they took the time to answer your questions. Politeness goes a long way in making you a top choice for membership in most clans.

3. Conduct yourself in an honorable fashion when playing, and chatting in the game. Most clans have a code of conduct that they use to evaluate a player's worthiness. If they see you using foul language, whining about losing, accusing other players of cheating or just being obnoxious, they will eliminate you from consideration. Remember: Your conduct will reflect upon your clan's image.

4. If a clan member asks you to join his clan and you are considering joining a different clan, respectfully decline his offer and tell him you have not decided on a clan yet. Make sure you do not appear to be saying; his clan is unworthy of joining or show disrespect, because many members have close friends in other clans and they DO talk. If you make someone mad, he may have a friend in the clan you are interested in, and make sure to tell him about your attitude.


Louis' comment on Elmo's guide :

Regarding clan and whether they are right for you, there is an additional aspect you might want to consider: do you want to play with people from your own country or do you want to join an international clan?

Country clan will provide forums in your native language, which might be helpful if your English is not good. Sharing the same language will also obviously help in lobby and in game communication. Also, players in the same country are often playing in the same timezone (exception for multitimezone countries...) and at the same hours, which makes it easier to meet fellow clan members.

In general, country based clans are somehow larger and less competition oriented than international clans... Although some country based clan won prestigious tournaments.

That's an additional dimension to consider when thinking about joining a clan.


3./. Maps and Mods

Players have developed additional maps and additional units (or modification of existing units) to add more challenge to the game.

To join a modded game, you need to have the mod install.

To join a game with a non standard map, you need the map.

Most of the additional maps are larger, very fun, and have been developed for large team game.

You can find the most frequently used maps at;

http://www.mizus.com/Files....ol1.exe

and

http://www.mizus.com/Files....ol2.exe

As a beginner, I would not recommend you to start directly with mods; those change drastically the way the game is played. Get used to the original game first.

The most popular mods (well, those that I see hosted often...) are N(apoleon)TW mod, Reconquista mod and High+ mod.

Froggy's tip: SP to MP or Gah No pause

So you've played single player for a while, you are really good at it and can beat the AI with little or no effort. Now you are moving to multiplayer to find a new challenge, but your basic skills will be fine and you certainly won't have problems with things as basic as giving orders, right? Wrong. Chances are high that if you have been playing SP you have been using a tiny feature called 'pause', you don't have to use it much to miss it when it is gone. Even if you only pause once or twice in big tough battles you will be affected to some degree by its absence. This is the single thing I found hit me hardest and it really affected my first few games until I found a way to compensate.

Without pause I couldn't take a breather during intense action, or pause the game when the phone rings or someone starts talking to me. I couldn't pause to give complex orders precisely, or to take a quick look at how the battle is going over all. I certainly couldn't stop to play about manoeuvring my cavalry to the perfect flank attack All this is obvious and expected, but the unexpected side effects were far worse ... I couldn't give orders fast enough and in my rush to keep up I made mistakes. The pace of SP is generally much slower, if you need to give orders to many units at once in a short space of time chances are you pause the game, give the orders then resume and watch the orders being given. Because everything is so relaxed, and because pause is there if you need it, you can afford to rely on the interface buttons for formation changes and engagement options, you can carefully reposition units when recalling them from a rout chase, you can fine tune alignments and tweak your formation until it is just so. Try doing this under significant pressure with no pause and all hell being let loose about you and you will soon start clicking on the wrong button, or just missing your target and ordering a unit to walk instead of attack

To this confusion you can probably add another problem to deal with - the camera. Hands up everyone who pauses when you need to nip off to the other side of the battlefield, or when you need to alter the camera angle quickly. Yes, well you can't do that now instead you need to play with the camera as you go.

So what can you do? There are several things I found helped.

1. Practise without pause against the AI. Obvious, just start up a custom battle and play the whole game without pausing once. Keep doing this until you start to feel comfortable.

2.Define and learn to use your own set of hotkeys. Don't use the games defaults, they are spread out and not exactly that friendly. Sure they may seem alright when you can pause, leisurely hitting backspace to halt and using the number pad to control the camera, but this is not so good when you need to be efficient. Put your camera under your left hand (assuming you use your right for the mouse) on the wsad keys, then place all the other commands around it and you will have everything bar movement at the tips of your fingers. You will never need to move your hand off the mouse, or reach halfway across the keyboard wasting valuable milliseconds and increasing the risk of hitting the wrong key. Even more importantly the hotkeys offer you a way to select groups or specific units at the touch of a key, see the section on grouping and hotkeys below for more.

My new keybind:
Camera
Forward fast w
Back s
Pan left a
Pan right d
Turn left fast q
Turn right fast e

Unit commands
Halt Tab
Rally r
Rout Ctrl+o
Group g
Withdraw ctrl+w
Select all ctrl+a
Deselect all units enter
Bind unit to number ctrl+shift+number
Recall bound unit Ctrl+number
Move with waypoint shift+lmb
Move with facing alt+lmb
Rotate facing alt+rmb

Formations
Close formation c
Loose formation x
Wedge formation z

Engagement settings
Engage at will v
Hold formation f
Skirmish b
Hold position h
Fire at will n

Communications/other
Talk to all t
Talk to team y
Radar toggle F5
Button bar toggle F6
Unit panel toggle F7

Unit grouping key binds
Missiles ctrl+1
Infantry left flank ctrl+2
Infantry centre ctrl+3
Infantry right flank ctrl+4
Cavalry left flank ctrl+5
Cavalry centre ctrl+6
Cavalry right flank ctrl+7
General ctrl+0

Using this keybind you can hit 'caps lock' and then move the camera at a much faster speed than the already 'fast' speeds they are bound to.

3.Group your units wisely and set them on hotkeys. What do I mean by wisely? Simple, I mean an order that you can understand and use quickly and reliably to select and order units. In my SP games I always grouped units by type, all chivalric men at arms would be one group, all feudal knights another and so on. If I had several units of a similar class they were always grouped separately, for example feudal men at arms were one group and chivalric men at arms were another. Then inside those groups I set it up so the position of the unit in the group related to its position on the field. The crossbow unit on the far left of its group would be the unit of crossbows deployed furthest left, the unit to the right of this unit in the grouping display would be placed to the right of it on the field, and so on. Logical enough and really reliable, but I said 'always' and that hints I don't do this any more, doesn't it? Well yes, that would be true - I never deploy and group like this now. It was too slow and inefficient for me without pause, when I want my right flank to repel a charge I want my right flank now and not just one unit but all of them capable of doing what I require. If I want to send my unit of highlanders and feudal men at arms from my right flank to attack a vulnerable unit I want to do it as quickly as possible, and this means I can't faff about selecting different groups and counting position inside those groups.

So what do I do now? Simple, I follow a tip given to me by Louis, namely group by position, and from there I added my own tip which is assign each group a hotkey at the start of the battle deployment phase. I group all my missile units together and assign them to ctrl+1 by selecting the group and hitting control+shift+1. Then I put all the infantry I want on my left flank into another group and assign them to ctrl+2, infantry for my centre into group ctrl+3, infantry right flank into group ctrl+4, then the same for cavalry. My general gets his own assignment to ctrl+0 so I can always find him quickly. If I need all the infantry on my right flank to repel a charge as per that example above all I need to do is hit ctrl+4 and give the order. I always, always assign unit groupings to the same number keys, if I have no missiles I will leave ctrl+1 blank, if I have no cavalry centre ctrl+6 gets left empty. This ensures I always know what is where, if I changed the groupings each game I would confuse myself something chronic

4.Give up on those nicely effective 2 rank deployments If you read my unit guide you will see many bits of advice like deploy swordsmen in ranks of two, well throw that out the window in MP It's not like that is bad advice, it certainly isn't for SP, but when you have less time and less control you need your units to move without catching on things, so formations three ranks deep are more use. You do lose some of that combat power and the wrapping effect that allows you to hit the enemy's flanks while attacking the front, but the gain is a unit that is easier to move about the field and that is much more important to MP. Also in the case of units like swords and combat ready missile units (aka hybrid infantry) this deeper formation allows them to take on cavalry without being swept away, and you would be surprised at how often you can end up taking on cavalry with units you would keep far away from horses in SP

Conclusion


If you have read the whole guide you sure have the patience and dedication to learn and play Medieval online

Thanks for your attention, if you have any question at that point, be sure I already told everything I know (and a few things I don't know), so, please, ask those questions to someone else

I feel I need to thanks the dedicated players who made a contribution to that guide;

in the muse category; frogbeastegg and LadyAnn
cowriters; BrutalDLX (Hildebrand), Dyonisus9, Elmo, Tomi says, Kalle (you got to finish the artillery part ...)
And also... Tempiic and Heart, CeltiberoAlioven and Mordred, ShingenMitch2...

Good luck and have fun

[FF]Louis,

Excellent Fantastic job Louis. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pat.gif

This is a definite sticky topic. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...c-thumbsup.gif

great guide

Congrats on a very good topic/guide

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...s/bigthumb.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...evalcheers.gif

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...evalcheers.gif

Thanks Gregoshi for the pin

Thanks ah_dut and Sun Tzui, happy you liked and find it helpfull. I hope to meet you online soon (if I haven't already http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ns/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...s/rolleyes.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ns/biggrin.gif )

Louis,

might be online but you can't lose http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ns/biggrin.gif

Moved this excellent resource from the Entrance Hall to its natural home in the MTW Multiplayer forum (Jousting Fields). New Members have access to that forum, and will find this useful there.