Medieval 2: Total War Re-release Party

The Org is going old school on May 15 and having a Medieval 2: Total War Re-release Party! So grab your installations disks or re-download the game if it is no longer on your hard drive and get ready for a trip down Memory Lane. If you haven't played M2TW before, here's your chance to play along with veteran players and find out what you missed. So check your favourite retail or online shop and grab a copy now.

New Total War releases are a community event. Everyone is playing the game and talking about it. However, once a new Total War game comes out, playing the older games becomes more of a solitary experience. The Re-release Party hopes to change all that. By targeting one game, we can play it together again - sharing our stories, strategies, tactics, questions, answers, AARs, and online match-ups once again in the M2TW forums. Whether you are re-visiting an "old friend" or playing M2TW for the first time, let's get ready to battle like it is the year 1080.

May 15 is a soft start date. You are free to begin play anytime before or after that date. The goal is to have as many people as possible playing at the same time. M2TW's expansions and all mods are fair game for this event. So prepare your armies and your computer for battle! We'll see you there.

Feel free to post here if you plan to participate.

I'll be joining, of course. I've only ever played the demo for M2TW since the game was too much for my ancient computer at the time. So consider me a n00b.

Ha! Over the last month I've been having my own private re-release party here, I never played it the first time either, so naturally I'm having a blast, but can't wait for more players to ask questions of!

Incoherencel is making a let's play of England running SS6.4, so I've been bugging him with questions, but man it would be nice to have some more folks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by easytarget

Ha! Over the last month I've been having my own private re-release party here, I never played it the first time either, so naturally I'm having a blast, but can't wait for more players to ask questions of!

Incoherencel is making a let's play of England running SS6.4, so I've been bugging him with questions, but man it would be nice to have some more folks!

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I'm in.

Let's direct everyone to the existing M2TW board or create a new one?

My hint for the day: It really really REALLY pays off to have your knights line up and charge properly.

Do it wrong and your knights won't be worth ****. Do it right and you will saw through the enemy like a hot knife in butter.

The general with his knights can easily cut through 4-5 enemy formations during the time of a normal battle. This unit you have access to from the start, USE it.

Remember to hit from behind or the sides though...

Heck, you can charge straight on against spears and still win, but it will be costly.

I have no idea how many times my heavy cavalry saved the day.

We can just use this existing board. Glad to have you aboard Kad. And thanks for the tip.

Hint 2:

It might be a bug, or actually mimicking real medieval warfare... But it's all about sieges.

Have one army stack with cavalry and troops, and another one or two for sieges.

The first should be whatever mobile stuff you have, the latter should be rock-throwing-thingys coupled with slow but steady infantry.

Use the mobile stack to scare away any enemy force, use the assault stack to actually capture stuff.

EDIT: cavalry are absolute rubbish in city-fighting. As much as they are game-savers on the open fields, they absolutely are rubbish in street fights.

Hint 3: Jihads or Crusades is daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn powerful. Never ever ever hesitate to start one.

A small hint is to make friends with the pope if playing a non-islamic faction, that way you will have 100% rate of whatever crusade you start. You can then direct the crusade to whatever enemy you have.

Play your cards right this includes catholic factions.

The benefit of crusade troops is that you can pick up extremely cheap mercenaries along the way - crusade troops (some are AWESOME). Also, you pay low upkeep (1/10?) for crusading stacks. Also, if a stack actually take the objective they will all get some extra experience bars. Did I mention you can get extra crusader specific items that just ROCKS? If not, I just told you so. "The spear of Antioch" comes to mind.

Seriously, we should get AskThePizzaGuy in here... I know all there is to functionally know about this game, he holds that as well as every tidbit of cheese you could possibly get.

I remember a post he made about besieging.. He used a light cavalry to lure the enemies out of the castle. He then took them to the maps edge. He then charged back to the center, starting the 2 min timer of automatic default of holding the square - the enemy troops were to far away to get back in time.

I don't do cheese... But that doesn't mean I don't bow to the cheese master!! :bow:

Hint 4:

Whatever general you have, have him join the crusade / jihad at the turn where you take the objective. That way him and all his troops will get the crusader/jihad bonus.

I'll be here till we close, if you have questions - don't be shy. I'm not on par with ATPG, but I know the game :)

Hint 5: only use one city for the brothel line of tech. Also keep your generals clear of this city.

The brothel line only works for getting spies and assassins. If you park a general there, he will get negative traits such as alcoholism.

It's not all bad, mind you. He is also more prone to sire kids.

Story of my life ;)

I never stopped playing. Doing a Venice campaign right now. Are you guys sure you want to face my handgunner fury?

Some Kind fellow posted this hint; Select your crusading army and hit Alt-A to restore their doubled movement after adding spies, assassins or diplomats to the stack.
The spy etc don't have the double crusade movment attribute in their file for some reason so it cuts the stacks movement too their max

Quote:

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Originally Posted by testhero

Some Kind fellow posted this hint; Select your crusading army and hit Alt-A to restore their doubled movement after adding spies, assassins or diplomats to the stack.
The spy etc don't have the double crusade movment attribute in their file for some reason so it cuts the stacks movement too their max

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That's brilliant!!

excuse i did not geit it! its for online gaming?!

it will be nice when Rome II really sucks and its a piece of Crap!

I'm in of course. Away from my PC now but will be back on Wednesday. Im going to Copenhagen after, and then on some personal stuff, but i will start a campaign and do a report with screens on it. I will share all my knowledve of the game. Anyone have any particular faction or mod in mind? Also pinging @LooseCannon1, @SilverShield and @Nightbringer

All of you who have previously played a good bit of MTW2 don't be shy about jumping in with suggestions or answers on the threads I've already started here with stuff I've run across playing a campaign so far (and thank you in advance). I seem to run into a seemingly endless array of questions:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...al-2-Questions

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...yer-company%21

As you can see in the second one I've taken to embedded pictures as well so I'm a bit less boring (trying to entice responses, haha).

I'll participate for sure. Never really stopped playing to be honest. I cant throw up some stuff about my current england game, or maybe start up a new one.

Also, this would be a great time for new players to try out the multiplayer aspects of things, and I would be glad to help organize some new hotseat games in the throne room. We could even try an all noob game if enough new players come around.

Vanilla M2TW? :laugh4: I don't think I've played that since January 2007. But because of mods and hotseats, it's easily the best game CA ever put out. I can't even comment on easytarget's threads or Kadagav_AV's hints since I can't remember the original game. Except to say Brothels? We Build Those EVERYWHERE (including castles):2thumbsup: (The traits file had to be fixed first)

I'm in..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LooseCannon1

Vanilla M2TW? :laugh4:

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This event is just to get as many people as possible to have a shared community experience with an older TW game. You may play any version with any mods you so desire. The Re-release party is a very informal event.

Oh, and welcome aboard LooseCannon1.

Well for me everything after MTW VI was rubbish for MP.

Gah, why is everyone trying to remind me that EB2 isn't out yet?

Medieval 2 is easily the most memorable Total War game for me, especially when it comes to the .org and the interactions it spawned here.
I never tried it out on my current computer, so I'm curious whether I'll be able to run it with full details!

Count me in!

Hello everyone! New to posting but have been a lurker for a long time. I recently started playing MTWII again after watching Vikings on History. Just for those curious, I'm running this game from the original CD on Windows 8 with no problems at all.

I guess it isn't appropriate to say "Welcome" but thanks for de-lurking KingFergus. :bow:

That is comforting to know. I have the downloaded version and haven't launched it yet, probably this weekend. However, I am running Windows 8 was wondering how M2TW might run on it.

I'm planning on starting a Crusader States campaign in Stainless Steel 6.4 Late Era. Plenty of muslims around to Crusade upon. Lots of rich coastal settlements, and an incredible roster of knights.

I never actually completed Vanilla as well, and I've not encountered the Mongols and Timurids. I think it's time. I'm torn between good ol' England or the Byzantines.

Reminder to those who will be playing Vanilla - the two handed bug means that two handed swords and halberds will be useless in lead battles. Better go with stuff like Armoured Swordsmen or Dismounted Feudal Knights.

While on the subject of Medieval 2, I heartily propose a hotseat or two. Nothing makes Medieval 2 shine more than waging war against fellow human generals in the grand campaign!

Me thinks I should do some thinking on which faction to play first.

Myth, thanks for the heads up on the two handed bug. Have at it with the hot seat proposal and include a link with info for those unfamiliar with hot seat games.

I'm definitely up for this. I never really got into Medieval 2. I might have completed 1 campaign total in that game. This is gonna be cool.

Started a vanilla game as the Byzantines. Forgot how slow armies are and how quickly buildings are built. Also - archers rule in vanilla.

Quick tip: make sure to milk the AI for any coin you can. Sell trade for 2000. Sell map info for 800. Sell alliances, sell anything you can. I made about 5000 gold just from the Turks (whom I attacked anyway) and Hungary in my initial turns, thus securing a steady infrastructure budget for trade buildings.

Also, keep track of how much income buildings provide. Warehouses, stone roads and mines can surprise you. Settle merchants on resources your faction values. it's corruption free income.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Myth

Started a vanilla game as the Byzantines. Forgot how slow armies are and how quickly buildings are built. Also - archers rule in vanilla.

Quick tip: make sure to milk the AI for any coin you can. Sell trade for 2000. Sell map info for 800. Sell alliances, sell anything you can. I made about 5000 gold just from the Turks (whom I attacked anyway) and Hungary in my initial turns, thus securing a steady infrastructure budget for trade buildings.

Also, keep track of how much income buildings provide. Warehouses, stone roads and mines can surprise you. Settle merchants on resources your faction values. it's corruption free income.

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It pays off to send merchants to the sweet spots.

Even with Denmark I got merchants down (by boat) to the very south west of the map (africa), where there are quite some nice trade items.

If I remember it right, you can also build a fort and have more than one merchant use the same spot... But now we are deep into cheese territory :)

Did you know that GameSpy servers are going down this month?

Yep, been seeing discussions and lamenting about that in every TW forum. A reminder that you should not hitch your game to 3rd party support for any core component you want to continue to exist long term. One would think the issues encountered with the launcher from earlier TW games like MTW2 would have caused CA to learn that lesson too, but then of course you'd be wrong as they reintroduced it in Rome 2.