The Nagatsuka Shumi review of MTWII

Well having had the game since Thursday in all its collectors edition glory I felt that this is indeed the time to post my opinion of the latest edition of Total War, a game I have followed and loved since its first incarnation in Japan (I still have memories of my battles with those bloody Hojo, damn you and your back-stabbery-ness!).

The first thing I noticed was that its menu's fit the period very nicely, going with a darker option this time compared to the much brighter MTWI set up, it was something that I was happy to see after the brightness of RTW, something that put me off at times, war should be dark, gritty not bright and cheerful, I don't think men lay with a smile whilst being bludgeoned to death, unless they'd been on the opium again.

My first campaign was as the English, bless my patriotic soul. The campaign map was delicious, again alot nicer than the RTW one which was too bright imo. It looked greater than it did on screenshots and it has helped me with immersion if I am honest. My first task was to capture York, the home of my beloved football team and place of happiness. Luckily I didn't have to damage a single stone of my haven and took it with ease, that said it was garrisoned by a very basic army of men, who somewhat bravely charged out of the castle to meet me, which lead to an untimely death, but it mattered not, I had taken York for my own before those bloody odd accented northern "pals" claimed it themselves, which was the important thing.

The odd thing with the Scots was that they seemed desperate from that point on to stay in my good books and thus became my bitches, much like in real life, and behaved themselves the whole trial campaign. The French were another matter, they took it into their garlic laiden hands to prove to be a pain in the arse, firstly by taking the Southern and Western rebel provinces and secondly by building a nice wealthy realm. The one thing to top it all off was that they also took it upon themselves to be incredibly pious so and so's and as such, when my good friend the Pope, who I had spent some time becoming good friends with, died they moved in and placed their own Caridnal on the Papal throne, so not only did they have wealth and territory on their side, they also had a puppet in Rome, something that I had aspired to, but sadly failed.

Now that they had alot of advantages, I sadly had to be nice to the Froggies and open up an alliance pact, the embarassment factor was large, but I knew if I kept on flooding the continent with priests that once his Holiness Pope Frenchie the Flatulant met his end, I could move in and take over, something that would allow me to break certain treaties I had made. Speaking of religion, I had heard news of the infidel capturing Jerusalem, something that as a good (when needed) Catholic I was of course offended by, not that the fact I needed the city to win the campaign had anything to do with it of course. I, as a purely pious member of the Catholic community, decided it was my duty to declare a Crusade against the foul Egyptian's and their army of cats and mummies, obviously they took offence, but isn't that my duty as a servant of Christendom?

To join a Crusade I was required to make a quite well sized army, before declaring my intent to go on a European Tour which would finish in the Holy Lands, maybe I could pick up a few souveniers along the way to bring back, like a Turkish Turnip or maybe an Imam Burger? Not sure yet, but I was intending to make some Muslim Keebabs come the end of my trip, not that I am encouraging anti-islamic canabilism.

When I finally arrived to my target I finally encountered my first taste of large scale warfare in MTWII, and god did it taste nice. I arrived in the province of Acre greeted by an armed and angry rabble of locals, fighting under the Egyptian flag. They lined up infront of my vast Crusader army, filled to the brim with crosses, and waited for my response which was to send my cavalry around their flanks, poking and probing at their cavalry, to remove that threat to my infantry who then charged my foes. Combat ensued for some time in the center, until my Cavalry was done with fighting and charged the rear of their army, which needed to be delivered effectively, as I had discovered in a smaller skirmish in Rennes, where I sadly lost one unit of cavalry. Anyway, the battle was eventually won but I discovered if you don't persue your fleeing foe, then you will find out that they will come back and they will prove to be a pain if you only just won the conflict, in this case I romped to victory, but thats beside the point.

A few more interesting battles later (including a rather hilly affair) I reach Jerusalem, which I promptly laid seige to. The thing I found with seiges was that they are indeed alot better in this version of the game, I thoroughly enjoyed assaulting the holy city, I enjoyed it even more when I won the province, sadly it was heavily non-Catholic, so my priests had a big task on their hand and the construction of churches was paramount, which brings me onto my next points.

HERETICS! The thorn in my side, the annoying little blighters decided it was about time to spread their filthy lies around my realm whilst my King was away on Catholic matter (namely cracking some infidel skulls), something I of course took great offence to, they were turning my populace against me, something I will not condone under any circumstance, killing the rebellious sods is a hassle I frankly didn't want, so out came my Cardinals, fresh from the North of England, which was behaving, down to Wales and London to do battle. Now these heretics can be dispatched in one of two ways, with a knife in their back or a snake up their trousers (I am aware of how wrong that sounds) OR with a clensing oil (essentially just oil with fire). I took the latter route and burnt the sods, although one was a tricky swine and kept been found innocent, eventually he did snuff it, but sadly by that time an Inquistor had arrived to quell the heresy. He took it upon himself to try my heif for heresy, a trial which he won and burnt my son. This was not something I was happy with, and alas it was something that I had to make sure never happened again, my second son is a total idiot and not suitable to rule my fabulous country, but sadly now he'll have to do.

This is one feature I miss, the inability to assassinate my own people, now if you get a useless heir, your stuck with him, and boy was I stuck with the fool. When my King did die, so did the Pope, my ideal opportunity to attack the French came and went as my King was way too inadequate to fight sucessfully, and thus ended my taster campaign in MTWII. Currently I find myself fighting the Milanese and Venetians as Sicily, both who are backstabbing little swines thanks to my concentrating on the Holy Lands and conflict with Egypt, that said I declared a peace treaty and now they are getting beaten to a pulp by the Mongol Horde, my lovely eastern friends have arrived and help me keep my holy places as the foes are too distracted to fight with me, which means I can now set my eyes on those treacherous Italians.......

All in all, I have enjoyed my experience thus far, it is alot more immersive than RTW was, much like its little brother MTWI and is alot of fun. The AI have not being making many retarded errors yet and they actually put up a fight now, they also keep treaties of alliance now, unless you fall out of favour with alot of people and the Pope, in which case they may strike if they spot a weakness, but thats the good thing, they haven't attacked me for no reason with odds against them, they have attacked when everything is in their favour as I am occupied elsewhere, which is a welcome addition.

I suggest everyone buys the game, it really is worth the money and has put the fun back into TW for me. Now back to my Italian war......

Hey NagatsukaShumi!!

Great write up. What difficulty are you on?

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Originally Posted by AussieGiant

Hey NagatsukaShumi!!

Great write up. What difficulty are you on?

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I am on Hard at the moment, best way to ease yourself into the game and its new features in my experience.

Thanks for the review NagatsukaShumi, well written.

:balloon2:

great review!

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Originally Posted by NagatsukaShumi

The odd thing with the Scots was that they seemed desperate from that point on to stay in my good books and thus became my bitches, much like in real life,

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It hurts because it's true :embarassed:

Great review and excellently written! It has built my anticipation for this game to nearly unbearable levels.

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Originally Posted by NagatsukaShumi

I am on Hard at the moment, best way to ease yourself into the game and its new features in my experience.

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I agree. I wont get the game until later next week. I think I'll follow your advise and stick with H/H in the initial campaign.

You should all enjoy this little gem, take it on with your gamer goggles on and you'll enjoy it immensly, your history buff glasses will steam with anger at some stuff I'm afraid, but there are mods to help with that :2thumbsup:

Is there any major difference in the AI on differing difficulty levels? Im asking because I had a quick go as the English this afternoon around my brothers house on Medium/Medium and found the AI to be just as dismally appaling as in RTW...

Yes, on vh the ai is a great chalenge just as the dev blogs said it would.

ok good, I was beginning to worry. Thanks.

cool review and what are some of the ways you can assanite some one

@NagatsukaShumi

Funny rewiew, just like a little AAR, now I just hope I get the game tomorrow

So far, I've had an assassin drop a stone off a bridge on someone, pop up out of a barrel and shoot them with a poisoned blowgun dart, stab them in the head while they're at the market shopping, and slip a poisonous snake into their bed while asleep. The failures are about as funny as the successes.

how are they funny excalty

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This is one feature I miss, the inability to assassinate my own people, now if you get a useless heir, your stuck with him, and boy was I stuck with the fool.

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So you cannot kill an useless heir via an assasin's blade?

I assume you can still send the next-in-line faction leader to a loast cause battle?

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Originally Posted by WineCape

So you cannot kill an useless heir via an assasin's blade?

I assume you can still send the next-in-line faction leader to a loast cause battle?

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Nope, you can't assassinate them no, yes you can send them off to unwinnable battles.

Thanks NagatsukaShumi for the info.

Now the long wait for the game to become avalaible in South Africa

Nice one, thanks.....