Medieval 2 Questions

[easytarget]

I feel a bit like I'm hijacking Inco's Let's Play thread so I'm going to start a new one where I just ask questions and hopefully someone out there still playing ME2 or who has played it in the past and willing to answer all the dumb questions I come up with along the way will chime in here!

1. Are schools and libraries worth building? They don't show much benefit in description, am I missing something?

2. On replenishment, do I have to send the unit I need replenishing back to the city/castle they were recruited from? It would appear to my untrained eye as if sometimes when I send them to the nearest castle/city that has the building that should afford the building of that unit, which to my way of thinking of it, would suggest the ability to replenish, the unit remains grey'd out on the training tab.

3. Just got an announcement about the Mongol hordes coming which I've heard so much about. W/in about one turn I had the Moors coming up from the south who heretofore I had ignored (apparently I should not have). My question is, is this in response to the Mongol horde announcement? And am I likely to get other visitors out of the East headed my way as well?

Ok, I'll stop there and see what I get. Man is this particular CA game fun. Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer some questions about the game, and trust me I do try and find the answers first, it's just that not many are still playing this one I'm afraid.

[easytarget]

Ok, another question even before the last batch got answered (hopefully).

While dealing with the Mongol horde invasion, which is what I assume these endless stacks of Moors is comprised of, not certain mind you, just assumed since the announcement of Mongols invading and the Moors showing up with 10 stacks coincided perfectly, I assumed they were connected, anyway, to my new question: I just got invaded up in the north where I'd taken a couple of Norway or Denmark cities/castles I've just had the announcement of the invasion of Teutonic Knights, is this unique to the stainless steel mod or does this show up in the vanilla game at very same time as the Mongol hordes?

I ask because these guys are showing up at a very inopportune time, I just hauled the armies up there down to deal with the Moors, so there's nothing there to stop these guys, not that it would matter, I'm talking chevrons out they yingyang on these guys, two stacks led by Generals with like 8 or 10 stars or something and a minimum of 4 chevrons on every unit. The wrecked on of my remaining armies w/o suffering a scratch.

What on earth am I to do here with these guys? I have half a mind to send a diplomat to someone I'm currently at war with and offer up the two I hold up there and just run away.

Thoughts?

[jackfruitguy69]

I feel a bit like I'm hijacking Inco's Let's Play thread so I'm going to start a new one where I just ask questions and hopefully someone out there still playing ME2 or who has played it in the past and willing to answer all the dumb questions I come up with along the way will chime in here!

1. Are schools and libraries worth building? They don't show much benefit in description, am I missing something?

2. On replenishment, do I have to send the unit I need replenishing back to the city/castle they were recruited from? It would appear to my untrained eye as if sometimes when I send them to the nearest castle/city that has the building that should afford the building of that unit, which to my way of thinking of it, would suggest the ability to replenish, the unit remains grey'd out on the training tab.

3. Just got an announcement about the Mongol hordes coming which I've heard so much about. W/in about one turn I had the Moors coming up from the south who heretofore I had ignored (apparently I should not have). My question is, is this in response to the Mongol horde announcement? And am I likely to get other visitors out of the East headed my way as well?

Ok, I'll stop there and see what I get. Man is this particular CA game fun. Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer some questions about the game, and trust me I do try and find the answers first, it's just that not many are still playing this one I'm afraid.

hey sorry i got late on posting been alot busy lately.... on number 2 you have to retrain units on the type of city/castle you got them. dont really have to be the same city/castle i.e retrain feudal knights on a fortress, pavise crossbowmen on a city with city watch. for mercenaries you got to play around with those. there are some that can be retrained on both city/castle where others only on 1 type.

[easytarget]

hey sorry i got late on posting been alot busy lately.... on number 2 you have to retrain units on the type of city/castle you got them. dont really have to be the same city/castle i.e retrain feudal knights on a fortress, pavise crossbowmen on a city with city watch. for mercenaries you got to play around with those. there are some that can be retrained on both city/castle where others only on 1 type.

Thanks for the response, good to know. I take it you can replenish crusader specific mercs you hire and possibly mercs in general then?

[jackfruitguy69]

well i tried to recruit unhorsed knights on vanilla and stainless steel and they both can be retrained on a castle and city. i might assume that mercs can be retrained on the same region you hired them. but again i retrained merc spearmen on a castle(gaza) and jerusalem(city). also with the replenishment thing there are a lot of factors which also might not apply. just like what nelson said where you did recruit them; size of the barracks, population, the unit cooldown(if its not a merc)

[easytarget]

Ok, couple more questions:

1. Mongol invasion: heard lots about it, would appear the Byzantine empire is running into them (as one would expect given their location, and in my campaign at least, the fact that they are currently the largest most powerful). Funny thing about that, I send out diplos to locate this mythical terrifying beast and can't seem to find the Golden Horde anywhere, what am I missing here? I'd like to see what their armies look like first hand but can't locate them. And one additional question: will they continue to expand westward into the heard of Europe?

2. Gunpowder has been discovered. Ok, so how do I get it? I'm consistently the most advanced, which I assume puts me in a good position to get this first. Problem: how exactly do you go about it? What buildings need to be built to get this?

[easytarget]

Just thinking out loud here, if the Byzantine empire is running amok, do I have no choice but to directly engage them militarily? Of can you form an alliance with then work to get the province count you need for victory? Or if they form an alliance do they just ignore it soon thereafter and attack you anyway?

[Nelson]

I think the message allows you to build a port that can in turn produce carracks to make the trip west. If memory serves...

[easytarget]

Well, guess I'll just have to give that one a go then the next campaign, as I just finished this one, and it was a complete blast. Loved every minute of it.

I think I got to the 4th upgrade on ships, perhaps that was not quite far enough, or it could be that I focused all my ports on economic rather than military design, as I never spend much effort on military buildings and focus all my efforts on making money. I'll have to make a point of upgrading a naval port as far as it can go next campaign to see.

Thanks!

[jackfruitguy69]

naval ports also make money

[Nelson]

1. Schools and libraries can help train better agents by leading to guilds, iirc.

2. I think you can retrain troops where ever you can build them.

3. I am unaware of any connection between the Mongols and other factions. The Timurids work like the Mongols. They show up and you get warned. I have never played Stainless Steel or seen a Moorish horde.

I’ve never liked the way the Mongols and Timurids play out due to the way so many large stacks in close proximity lead to such large battles that the game becomes a slide show. Giant multi-stack armies wreck the game engine.

[easytarget]

Thx for the response! So, need schools and libraries either in the city I want to work on establishing an assassins guild or the one where it has already started to push it along?

Ok, retrain anywhere you can build, I just need to understand then why sometimes it appears grey'd out still even though I can build there. Still feels like I'm missing something. But at least I'm not just out in left field on it.

This one worries me then, it could well mean that I allowed the Moors to build up an empire to the south of me and they've invaded only it just is mere happenstance it happened at the same time of the Mongols invasion announcement, in which case I've still got that to look forward to if they make it over my way. Man those Tuetonic Knights that also showed up thanks to Stainless Steel just obliterated me.