Medmod Strategies

[Ranges]

Hey All,
I've recently started playing medmod, and quite honestly, i got smashed, ground to dust, spanked and otherwise humiliated.

So now i'm wondering, does anybody have a lot of experience playing medmod?
Or, even better, has anybody bothered to post medmod strategies online?

I'm terribly curious.
greets,
-Ranges

[katank]

if you want to have an easy time with medmod, play the Italians.

if you want to be bashed into smithereens, try HRE.

read the readme and pay lots of attention to the homelands stuff.

try and decrease reliance on mercs in regular games and you should be more or less ready for medmod.

don't turtle, rush the AIs and play far more aggressively as it's harder to turtle and beat the AI due to more intelligent AI

[Duke of Gloucester]

Dumb question: What does "turtle" mean?

[Procrustes]

Dumb question: What does "turtle" mean?

To adopt a very defensive strategy where you stay still, don't attack anyone, act friendly to your neighbors and the pope, marry your daughters off, build alliances, etc. - all the meantime building like mad so that you will have the money and armies you need when you decide to suddenly lash out at all your "friends." Be like a turtle - sit tight in your shell biding your time. Let your neighbors punch themselves out and/or over-extend their economies and LOC before you make your move.

HTH,

[Nerouin]

"Turtling" is another word for trying to build yourself fortresses; hiding in your shell!
It would refer to trying to build up a great defense force for your provinces, then sit idly with it defending while you build up.

In MedMod, the other side will build up forces to the point that it will crush your "great" defense force to dust if you do this.

I've played MedMod as the Egyptians, the English, and the Russians.
As the Egyptians, it's rather easy- pick your poison, the Turks and Byzantines or the Almohads. To do both is possible, but not a great idea! I personally think the Almos are a better target, as they have much the same forces as you and thus can be simply overwhelmed by larger numbers. Also, you are fighting on a one-province border throughout North Africa, and if you make it all the way to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain), you can hold up in Morocco, or smash through and hold a secure border on Navarre and Aragon, both very defensible provinces. I also tend to avoid conquest into Asia Minor because the Mongols will eventually come, and I'd rather leave them to others.. however, it is hard to pass up Rum, very rich province! Edessa, Syria and Antioch are musts to have also. Oh! Another advantage of attacking the Almos.. you get to expand trade into the Atlantic Ocean area.

With the Russians, I simply gain control of all of the modern-Russian area of the map by bribing or destroying all the rebels. I still haven't gotten to the Mongol invasion. Lots of crossbows etc. waiting for that one!!!

With the English, I first took the English Isles, then expanded into Denmark, and from there to Spain, then a 3-pronged attack into France. I smashed the Danes, then the Spanish, then the Almos. I followed this by a 3-pronged attack (Denmark, England and Aragon/Navarre) into French territory.. finally I moved on and destroyed the Italians. However, it is VERY hard to hold Western Europe, as your borders are almost always composed of 5 or more provinces!!! The English have great armies, but they are more offensively inclined, I think.. unless you can put a lot of pikemen on the line and support them. They don't have a really good heavy infantry, which makes it tough to defend, especially against heavy Arab forces. They would be swift death against Mongols, though.


Anyway, the short of it is be agressive, and don't play western European factions unless they're English- as the English a strong fleet guaruntees the safety of your homelands, sans Auquitine (sp?) and Normandy, which are also very important.

[Silver Rusher]

The MedMod is great, and I know this doesn't matter too much, but the Genoese in Late are still Sicilians and weaker than they should be (he forgot to make Genoa a decent province) and the Crusaders are still the Burgundians. There's a way to change this, which I've done on my own comp, so I can't be bothered to explain.

But I may release an *unofficial* patch based on the things I think are wrong with it (it's so good that this patch won't have much difference).

Anywho, I've played as the Crusaders, somehow managing to whip the Egyptians ass, and I am now playing as the Almos, having already destroyed Spain and Aragon, working my way towards france. In MedMod, a lot has changed, so remember to use different strategies than you normally would.

My pet peeve of this mod is that if you manage to carve a big enough empire to be on both sides of Europe, in the mediteranian and the atlantic (doesn't apply to Spain and France) you can't build ships to move around the other sea. And, if you happen to be playing as a faction that doesn't start on the sea at all, then you can't even build any ships anyway!

[katank]

homelands for ships is also kinda annoying.

as the almos, I couldn't build ships in many Spanish provinces but coudl in Normandy!

also, the AI kicking each other out of their homelands and hence spearmen hordes are kinda dumb.

[Silver Rusher]

you could in Normandy? Ah, thanks

[Duke of Gloucester]

@ Procrustes and Nerouin
Thanks for the explanation of "turtling"

[Ranges]

Thanks a lot people!
As soon as i get time, i'll detail my experience, but right now i've got my girlfriend insisting we watch a movie.

Thanks again!

[edit & additions]

So, to start, underworld is quite a nice movie..

My experiences in medmod, however..

I found the sicilians the easiest faction so far, my english legions got creamed, mostly due to nasty a strategic location, my HRE got rightfully smashed (strategic location started out horrible, didnt get better), Italy did fairly decent, but got bugged down, and russia, well, they did well, but bored me after awhile..

Siciliy, with it's sicilian feudal knights (aka Tanks), it's italian infantry (aka Stone Walls) and it's Nizari's (AKA Artillery) do nicely in any area...


I must agree with the gripe about ships being homeland units. Maybe the better ships SHOULD be homeland units, but one sorry ship type should be available anywhere. Hrrm.. i'll have to learn modding myself, now..

As for battle tactics using medmod, well, i must admit that they have grown more refined, compared to vanilla MTW, but that's for a later post, it's getting late..

Thanks again for all the reactions! Keep em coming :)
-ranges

[son of spam]

There are some bugs with medmod. The homelands w/ships is one, but also as the Mongols you can't build emissaries nor ships in the black sea.

Looks like Wes forgot to set emissaries buildable for pagan religions :P

[katank]

Actually, the Sicilians are not that easy if you actually don't use pavisiers and take advantage of the fact that the only reason they are there is because the faction subs for Genoese Confed in Late.

The Brits are easy.

longbows in early is good. Norman knights are also powerful although not quite as good as destriders. muntators are jineetes and quite nice.

the claymores also pack a punch though the clansmen aren't as cost effective any more.

fyrdmen are fairly solid still.

[einar]

The MedMod is great, and I know this doesn't matter too much, but the Genoese in Late are still Sicilians and weaker than they should be (he forgot to make Genoa a decent province) and the Crusaders are still the Burgundians. There's a way to change this, which I've done on my own comp, so I can't be bothered to explain.

But I may release an *unofficial* patch based on the things I think are wrong with it (it's so good that this patch won't have much difference).

Anywho, I've played as the Crusaders, somehow managing to whip the Egyptians ass, and I am now playing as the Almos, having already destroyed Spain and Aragon, working my way towards france. In MedMod, a lot has changed, so remember to use different strategies than you normally would.

My pet peeve of this mod is that if you manage to carve a big enough empire to be on both sides of Europe, in the mediteranian and the atlantic (doesn't apply to Spain and France) you can't build ships to move around the other sea. And, if you happen to be playing as a faction that doesn't start on the sea at all, then you can't even build any ships anyway!

Yes, and the swedish have russian names, i could make changes and add swedish names for this faction, and change the burgundian faction to crusaders faction.

[Ranges]

Actually, the Sicilians are not that easy if you actually don't use pavisiers and take advantage of the fact that the only reason they are there is because the faction subs for Genoese Confed in Late.

The Brits are easy.

longbows in early is good. Norman knights are also powerful although not quite as good as destriders. muntators are jineetes and quite nice.

the claymores also pack a punch though the clansmen aren't as cost effective any more.

fyrdmen are fairly solid still.

Actually, i havent figured out the appeal of the pavisiers yet, but that may be me. they have less armour and attack than italian light infantry, although their units are larger. I tend to stick with italian light infantry, they do quite well for me.

As for muntators, where do i build them, and what are the prerequisites?

That, actually, is my biggest problem; i dont know the requirements for most units. Is there a list anywhere?

[katank]

use gnome editor and open the MM units file and check column 17.

pavisiers are usually godly in the hands of the AI and are quite jedi.

takes 3-4 units pounding it from all sides and sometimes it still doesn't break. so OP...

[Ranges]

Hrrm...

I see, well, i guess there has to be something to say for those fellas :)

I'll give them another shot :)
Thanks :)

[katank]

no prob.

actually, I never played as the Italians so maybe they are only super jedi when on AI's side.

[Ranges]

Well, the italian pavisiers actually crashed my english campaign.. Then again, i was relying heavily on the longbow + fyrdmen + norman knight combo..


And guess what, superior spears with high armor, a pavise and a tendency to hold for VERY long are capable of dealing with EACH of those units.. *sighs* It was educational, but very painful.. :P

Right now i'm working on france, hard, early.. And i'm currently crusading everybody to pieces.

Those norman knights are once again better in AI hands than in my own. Figures, i guess i've got a lot to learn...

[Mightypeon]

The only awnser to Pavisiers are either the Byz guys (who are as op but more expensive) other Paviesiers or ridden archers/X-bows whatsorever.

[son of spam]

Or you can outgeneral the Italians by so much that Pavs don't matter much anymore :D. It's not that hard in early, I think they only get one hero, and he's easily disposed of. I like to see their scary scary pavisiers led by a 0* charge my lb line lead by a 8* 7v Norman knight. hehe

[katank]

true. out valor heavily and shoot em to bits before engaging would do well.

they don't break very easily if a fairly even match so use Inquisitors and the like or assasins to kill off their good gens is certainly a good tactic