A bunch of odd questions, please add yours or answer these.

After playing through a short campaign and before taking on my first full term long campaign without cheating, I had a few questions worth asking.
1. What continent is Timbuktu on, is it in the new world or Africa? I never seen it.
2. Merchants, are they worth it on like Dyes and sheep and other non producing weath commodity. Also, how does one power up a merchant, I have a merchant sitting from turn one and at the end of my first campaign, he only had like 6 finance.
3. Is good standards worth having. I never break treaties/alliances but in GETTING a treaty, does it matter if I am on good relations or does that help stop a war via ceasefire.
4. Blockcading a dock, is it worth the trouble. I realise they loose their trade via that port, Right? But sometimes I see a mission to block a port and "my coffers will fill" is noted, do I get extra money for doing this. Also, does anyone do this as a war tactic and does it work?
5. What guilds do people try for? I know which ones I like like Swords or the theology one (The one for priest, I forget the name) but is there any nobody ever uses or don't like?
6. I understand that modding is easier. I heard that you can quickly mod the game to play as the aztecs but what about the Papacy. I understand that the mechanics are hardcoded so I could ask for a crusade or what not but what about the simplified mechanics. Is it possible? If so, could I if I attacked lets say Milan, could I be excommunicated from myself.
7. Speaking of Papacy, has anyone seen an UberPope go nuts and try to take the world? Also, has anyone seen the Papacy have one of their cardinals elected as pope?
8. Is it just me or is Milan a little overpowered. It seems to me they go nuts and try to take over everything around me easier than they should and they always backstab and attack me, every time? How about any other comments on this one?
9. I never played Egypt but if you give the Papacy Jerusalem, will they still try to crusade against you?
10. Is faction re-emergences even possible? I hope not, I hated that about the first MTW is that they come back and not only do they do that but they amass a huge army out of nothing. If I had spys everywhere which I usually do, why didn't they see that coming.
11. Personal playing question, does anyone ever actually try and get good on chivary. I usually get stuck with a buttload of dread because I have to use assasins to take out other agents.
12 Speaking of agents, is their any other way to get rid of an enemy spy/assasin without assassinations? It would make more sence if you could arrest a known spy/assassin.
13. Does any faction ever keep anything other than a Very Untrustworthy or just Untrustworthy reputation. Does it really even matter? More in deep question, REALLY, does it matter to be anything good at all?
14. Night battles, how does a general be able to use that ability and is it even worth it. Is their a bonus or something to make it worth it.
15. Can you change a factions religion like you could the Vikings in VI? I train up my priest to be College of Cardinal Material by sending all my priest/bisops to Russia? Is Russia even catholic and if not, can I convert them by doing this?

I have other questions that I thought of at work but its 2:06 in Oregon where I live and my Multiple Sclerosis is taking some of my nerves away in my cheek and mouth so I am kinda annoyed by this. Kinda messed up on how my immune system attacks my nerves but hey, what can you do? Please take some time and answer some questions.

Thank you in advance
Bud.

Hi Budwise,
Sadly, I do not yet own Medieval II: Total War, yet I hopefully can help you with a few things.

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Originally Posted by Buwise

1. What continent is Timbuktu on, is it in the new world or Africa? I never seen it.

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I would say that Timbucktu would be in Africa where is was historically, yet I cannot be sure.

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Originally Posted by Budwise

4. Blockcading a dock, is it worth the trouble. I realise they loose their trade via that port, Right? But sometimes I see a mission to block a port and "my coffers will fill" is noted, do I get extra money for doing this. Also, does anyone do this as a war tactic and does it work?

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I think, yet still am not sure, that means that the council of nobles/the pope will reward you with money if you blockade the great port that they are requesting you to stop trade to.

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Originally Posted by Budwise

10. Is faction re-emergences even possible? I hope not, I hated that about the first MTW is that they come back and not only do they do that but they amass a huge army out of nothing. If I had spys everywhere which I usually do, why didn't they see that coming.

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I am lead to believe according to the totalwar.com MII:TW FAQ that factions do not have the ability to re-emerge.

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Originally Posted by Budwise

14. Night battles, how does a general be able to use that ability and is it even worth it. Is their a bonus or something to make it worth it.

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Based upon my knowlage of R:TW BI, I think that your generals will recieve a trait called "night fighter" which appears should a general get to a certain level of comand rating or should fight sucessfully in a night battle. In BI it provided a +1 command bonus during fighting at night, yet it may not do in MII:TW. Sadly you will have to wait for a veteran to pop by before being sure.

Sorry I couldn't answer all your questions, good luck with your campaign, cheers!

Thanks, I have seen the Night Battle Trait on a general before. I guess my question was how did he get that?

Thanks for taking the time and writing, I kinda want to see how far this goes and ask for everyone to state questions that they have even if its simple and answer others if you can.

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Originally Posted by Budwise

After playing through a short campaign and before taking on my first full term long campaign without cheating, I had a few questions worth asking.
1. What continent is Timbuktu on, is it in the new world or Africa? I never seen it.

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It's in africa, south of the moorish provinces

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2. Merchants, are they worth it on like Dyes and sheep and other non producing weath commodity. Also, how does one power up a merchant, I have a merchant sitting from turn one and at the end of my first campaign, he only had like 6 finance.

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I don't bother with them, but if you want them to level up you eventually need to attack other merchants and get that line of traits.

Getting the monopoly trait, from trading on several of the same resource in a province, helps too

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3. Is good standards worth having. I never break treaties/alliances but in GETTING a treaty, does it matter if I am on good relations or does that help stop a war via ceasefire.

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It does help.

Either go all good, or all bad - in the middle doesn't help at all.

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4. Blockcading a dock, is it worth the trouble. I realise they loose their trade via that port, Right? But sometimes I see a mission to block a port and "my coffers will fill" is noted, do I get extra money for doing this. Also, does anyone do this as a war tactic and does it work?

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I never bother :beam:

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5. What guilds do people try for? I know which ones I like like Swords or the theology one (The one for priest, I forget the name) but is there any nobody ever uses or don't like?

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The crusader knights ones are useful, as are the assassins, if you want to use them

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6. I understand that modding is easier. I heard that you can quickly mod the game to play as the aztecs but what about the Papacy. I understand that the mechanics are hardcoded so I could ask for a crusade or what not but what about the simplified mechanics. Is it possible? If so, could I if I attacked lets say Milan, could I be excommunicated from myself.

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There's a mod to do it iirc - i couldn't tell you any more

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7. Speaking of Papacy, has anyone seen an UberPope go nuts and try to take the world? Also, has anyone seen the Papacy have one of their cardinals elected as pope?

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If you give the papacy land it tends to go mad :laugh4:

And they only get teh one starting cardinal usually so they only rarely get elected

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8. Is it just me or is Milan a little overpowered. It seems to me they go nuts and try to take over everything around me easier than they should and they always backstab and attack me, every time? How about any other comments on this one?

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Yep, many people have noticed the same thing

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9. I never played Egypt but if you give the Papacy Jerusalem, will they still try to crusade against you?

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Yes

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10. Is faction re-emergences even possible? I hope not, I hated that about the first MTW is that they come back and not only do they do that but they amass a huge army out of nothing. If I had spys everywhere which I usually do, why didn't they see that coming.

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No - and that's a bad thing imo :thumbsdown:

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11. Personal playing question, does anyone ever actually try and get good on chivary. I usually get stuck with a buttload of dread because I have to use assasins to take out other agents.

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High dread does the job almost as well, so no

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12 Speaking of agents, is their any other way to get rid of an enemy spy/assasin without assassinations? It would make more sence if you could arrest a known spy/assassin.

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You can use an exploit wherein you surround the agent with military units on all sides and then use another unit to step on it, killing it, but otherwise no.

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13. Does any faction ever keep anything other than a Very Untrustworthy or just Untrustworthy reputation. Does it really even matter? More in deep question, REALLY, does it matter to be anything good at all?

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It does matter, but only if you really want to play that way

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14. Night battles, how does a general be able to use that ability and is it even worth it. Is their a bonus or something to make it worth it.

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I've never bothered, and don't have many generals who can

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15. Can you change a factions religion like you could the Vikings in VI? I train up my priest to be College of Cardinal Material by sending all my priest/bisops to Russia? Is Russia even catholic and if not, can I convert them by doing this?

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Nope - you're stuck with teh starting one

And russia is orthodox so you are converting them

Night Fighter is useful for preventing enemy reinforcements since typically many AI generals lack Night Fighter.

This allows you to have full ammo, healed casualties, and redeployment for the next battle, should you choose to fight it.

The downside is less visibility for the human player and less accuracy for missile units (I think).

I love Night Fighter. Making sure you only have to fight a one on one battle can be pretty important if two big stacks are near each other, especially in a siege battle.

Unfortunately, as I've discovered, if you have two stacks and use night fighting, your stacks will both be allowed, but the secondary one will be controlled by the AI no matter what option you select. A bug, I'd imagine.

iirc it's a bug of sorts - you've got to reselect that you want to manually control the reinforcements after you've selected to fight a night battle (I could be wrong - this is from memory of the buglist)

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6. I understand that modding is easier. I heard that you can quickly mod the game to play as the aztecs but what about the Papacy. I understand that the mechanics are hardcoded so I could ask for a crusade or what not but what about the simplified mechanics. Is it possible? If so, could I if I attacked lets say Milan, could I be excommunicated from myself.

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The Papacy is unlocked by moving papal_states in descr_strat.txt in drive:\Medieval II Total War\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign from under the nonplayable to playable. The target of a Papal attack is excommunicated. Excommunication really does not mean too much, beyond some poorer city sentiment and a few more heretics. If it means war slightly sooner, that barely matters as without modification the ai factions will blindly go to war with the strongest faction. The Papacy can summon Crusades in the same way as other Catholic factions. If the Pope was a cardinal from a faction hostile to the Papal states, the Crusade can be difficult to obtain. Overall, it is not that different to play from the other Catholic factions, though it starts with some very strong infantry and a strong starting position.

your first question should have been asking about the use of the enter key and spacing your post, makes me dizzy :dizzy2:

in answer to some of your questions, yes use merchants, its sick income after a while...and your merchants can basically fund a full stack army if you have enough of them out

if my general has night fighting i fight in the night, it does seem to help, but maybe its just in my mind

if you keep an alliance, it seems the longer it holds the higher your rep is, thus making it easier to get alliances/ceasefires from other factions

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Originally Posted by Budwise

1. What continent is Timbuktu on, is it in the new world or Africa? I never seen it.

2. Merchants, are they worth it on like Dyes and sheep and other non producing weath commodity. Also, how does one power up a merchant, I have a merchant sitting from turn one and at the end of my first campaign, he only had like 6 finance

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Merchants are only worth it on rare, expensive resources. They are usually located on the map's egdes. Like those around Timbuktu, Scandinavia/Russia and Americas in late game.

Timbuktu is at the bottom of your map. You need to go south past the moutains east of Marrakesh and then cross the Sahara desert*. It's a long 6-8 turns walk. Bring a modest army(general, cavalry and missiles), some priests and a lot of merchants.

You will need priests to convert the locals and make it easier to keep Timbuktu and the other settlement west of it. Hire cheap African mercenaries available in that region to fight for you.

Put your best merchants on the gold and ivory.

*In late game, you can reach that region by sea using carracks.

Personally I think having merchants up to your limit is worth it (assuming your finances and war situation allow spending on them). It's not hard to fill them up on stuff that gives 100-200 a turn (not to mention the really good stuff) and if you get the Merchants HQ and appropriately manage them, you shouldn't be taken over that often. All they have to do is stay alive for more than 5 turns if they're making 100+ and they've paid back their investment. Plus, when you get a real strong merchant, it can make some nice cash taking over other merchants.

"11. Personal playing question, does anyone ever actually try and get good on chivary. I usually get stuck with a buttload of dread because I have to use assasins to take out other agents. "

I try to get high chivalry generals. They give a growth bonus= more taxes in your cities. There is a thread somewhere on these boards about more info on this.

The main reason is however that blitzing and high dread leads to too quick a victory so I prefer to play a sort of iron man rule which is to always act chivalrous. This considerably makes the game harder( no sacking or exterming, release or ransom only, attack only non-caths or excommed factions).I also try for high reputation and relations, though I realize in Vanilla this aspect is largely broken.

On the chivalry topic, I am sorta like Razor, except I will sack SOME cities if they are not of my religion. And if they are really really rich! Like Jerusalem on the first crusade.

What is funny is that I blitz alot yet usually have tons of high chivarly generals because when I call a crusade, I get multiple armies to join to get the crusade bonuses giving all of my generals large chivalrous boosts.