New player could use some help with specifics

[LittleJohn]

Hi
I just boughtMedieval at WallMart from the discount shelf and it came without a manual so I am haveing some trouble learning specifics.
First how do you set somone as a govorner? Is it just the ranking officer on that space? If so why does it still say none under govorner?

Second how do you retrain and upgrade troops? Everyone talks about it but I cant find specific directions on how. And if you retrain or upgrade in a town with iron do you get that bonus then?
Also is thier any way to get Bishops, Assasins and emisaries with higher valor? Almost all of mine are zeroes and not of much use.
I'm sure I'll have more questons later when I think of other things could sure use a manual about now

[Accounting Troll]

At the start of the game (and when you capture a new province) there is a playing piece in each province that represents the governor title. Drag and drop this playing piece onto any one of your unit leaders to turn that unit leader into the province governor. It is usually best to give the governorship to a unit leader with an acumen level of 3-4 or above. There are also several government posts that become available when you build certain buildings - award these to province governors. Your king and his heirs can never be awarded a title.

If a province governor is killed in battle, you will need to reassign his title to somebody else.

To retrain/upgrade a unit, open up the unit training box and then drag and drop your unit into the unit training queue. A unit an only be retrained if the facilities to train that unit exist in that particular province. If a province has iron, it can build a weaponsmith who improves the quality of the weapons used by your men. When you upgrade a unit, its armour and weapons are automatically upgraded if the facilities exist.

Bishops, emissaries and assassins gain stars by carrying out successful missions. Use your bishops and emissaries to negotiate treaties, and use your assassins for killing enemy characters and they will improve over time.

[Accounting Troll]

And welcome to the Org

[MidnitePiper]

"First how do you set somone as a govorner?"

Take a close look at the figures in the province - one of them should be a small scroll. Examining the scroll should tell you something about what the governor will be called and any attribute bonuses a general will get if you assign him as governor. To assign that office to a general, pick up the scroll piece from the map and drop it on the general you want to assign.

"Second how do you retrain and upgrade troops?"

Open the troop training screen - then select the unit stack on the map that contains the units you want to retrain. You should now see both the unit training screen and (at the bottom of your screen) the individual units that make up the stack - select the unit from the box on the bottom of the screen, then just drag and drop into the training screen.

"And if you retrain or upgrade in a town with iron do you get that bonus then?"

If you have built the right structures (armory, etc) you get whatever bonuses troops produced in that province should get. Handy for morale and valor bonuses as well as armor.

"Also is thier any way to get Bishops, Assasins and emisaries with higher valor?"

Better buildings - upgrades to the basic structures will make agents of higher valor.

Assassins - send them in large groups; I always send teams of seven to nine. A few will survive, many will die, and you'll develop the occasional 4-star (don't get attached, he’ll eventually die too - it's the nature of his job).

Emissaries - Valor doesn't make a lot of difference. I always make five and station them with various monarchs, then harass them turn after turn - gets me some nice emissaries. One useful trick - when a monarch has sent you an offer, you can generally refuse then make the offer yourself (within a year or two) to get your emissary a star. Also, bribing units gets them stars - buy off the occasional rebel province if it has interesting units or leaders.

Edit: Typos

[RooK]

Also is thier any way to get Bishops, Assasins and emisaries with higher valor?

Assasins are easy... train and kill your own emissaries! You have a high success rate and you can train them up pretty fast. Emissaries can be trained up some by bribing rebel groups.

[Dragoncrusader]

It might help you if you download some of the guides from the Org front pages such as frogbeastegg's guide "Complete Total War Unit Guide", "Economics 101", etc just to get you going as the bulk of the game is fairly self explanatory. Also play the two training scenarios several times, as there are lots of clues there.
Good Luck

[Ludens]

Also is thier any way to get Bishops, Assasins and emisaries with higher valor? Almost all of mine are zeroes and not of much use.

There are building upgrades for spies and assassins once you install VI. Furthermore, assassins get a bonus in Syria, and inquisitors of both kinds get one in Castille. There are also a number of hero agents with improved stats. You can find more about agents in this thread: Agents

[bretwalda]

I have a similar new-player problem ;) I can't build more cathedrals... I know it says in the guides that Citadel + Church is required, but i just does not appear on the build list... Is this that only one can be built, ever? Please enlighten me!

[sapi]

some factions cannot build certain buildings (eg the danes cannot build a chapter house)

The manual is in the downloads section as Medieval_total_war_manual.zip

[bretwalda]

some factions cannot build certain buildings (eg the danes cannot build a chapter house)

The manual is in the downloads section as Medieval_total_war_manual.zip

The manual does not say anything about cathedral, I also checked the guides and faqs... but it is quite possible that I overlooked something, so does anyone has any idea about this issue?

[Ironside]

I have a similar new-player problem ;) I can't build more cathedrals... I know it says in the guides that Citadel + Church is required, but i just does not appear on the build list... Is this that only one can be built, ever? Please enlighten me!

Yes only one can be built, ever.
Well unless you remove that Unique mark they have in the building file.

You can capture more though.

[bretwalda]

Yes only one can be built, ever.
Well unless you remove that Unique mark they have in the building file.

You can capture more though.

Thanks a lot for the info!

So then what would be the ideal place for a cathedral, since it is generating income?

[LittleJohn]

Thanks guys!
Being able to set govorners realy boosts your income no wonder I was struggleing! I dont know why I didnt think of doing something with those scrolls I knew they were there
The troop training wasnt as obvious though thanks for the info.

[Marquis de Said]

So then what would be the ideal place for a cathedral, since it is generating income?

Income-wise, it makes no difference at all. A Cathedral always generates 50 gold per turn. But it does enable you to build other buildings such as Military Academy, so I would recommend building it in a fairly peaceful province, since the cathedral itself takes 16 turns to build. Losing it after 13-14 turns of building isn't fun

[HopAlongBunny]

Welcome to the .org

You can save yourself a lot of frustration by checking out the "Guides" section; on the other hand, reading is pretty dry compared to the banter helpful ppl on the boards

[English assassin]

Doesn't a cathedral give a morale boost to troops trained there as well? IIRC it does so its worth having in a troop training province.

[bretwalda]

Doesn't a cathedral give a morale boost to troops trained there as well? IIRC it does so its worth having in a troop training province.

In MTW VI it says +3 morale upgrade. Is it cumulative with church and relinquary? In my Hungarian game I try to build in Hungary, so that iron and moral boost will give uber troops

[LittleJohn]

Ok I have another dumb question
How do you merge units? I hear lots of talk about it but havent been able to figure it out Would also be nice if I could split then since I play with huge groups and would be nice to have only 100 peasants at times.
While I am findeing the beginners guide useful it has lots of tips like I didnt know your govorners would get vices if you have high taxes no wonder I get so many vices! But most of it is common sense, basic strategy and often tells you to read the manual. And for some reason I cant download stuff from this site so I am haveing to read it online.

[bretwalda]

Automerge: press 'M' while the army is selected. You can press 'M' while the province is selected: then all of the armies are merged that are in the province (observing the 16 unit limit, of course).

You can also pull the units over each other: the same type will merge.

I do not know any way to split. If you have depleted units you can try the above trick.

Ok I have another dumb question
How do you merge units? I hear lots of talk about it but havent been able to figure it out Would also be nice if I could split then since I play with huge groups and would be nice to have only 100 peasants at times.
While I am findeing the beginners guide useful it has lots of tips like I didnt know your govorners would get vices if you have high taxes no wonder I get so many vices! But most of it is common sense, basic strategy and often tells you to read the manual. And for some reason I cant download stuff from this site so I am haveing to read it online.

[Procrustes]

You can only merge, not split. Also, there is an option to turn the "automerge" off - you get to it by clicking on the right-hand side of the global map (where it kinda looks like a triangle pointing to the right.) If you don't turn it off the computer "tidies" your units for you after each battle.

Merging is a little goofy, I tend to do it manually a lot of the time. Two very depleated units will merge into one and you will loose one of your commanders - you don't always get to pick which one. (Generals and units with vices don't seem to disappear, though.) Also, it seems to me that when I have a depleted multi-star general and I merge him with another unit of the same type, it's the general that looses men not the other unit. Very frustrating.

[Lacker]

Something really important to keep in mind!!


When merging, you can transfer upgrades to armies that don't have them.

For example. Lets pretend I created a NEW unit of Mounted Sergents in Sweden, with a Master armorour/swordsmith/spearmaker and the best Iron building possible. That unit will have a little gold sword, AND gold shield due to all the upgrades.

Now, pretend that after a battle there are only 10 of them left and I merge them with a full unit that was mustered in Finland with NO upgrades consisting of 40 men. It's possible to switch the upgrade to the unit with 40 men. This will give you a unit with all the upgrades and 40 men and a depleted unit of 10 men and NO upgrades.

It seems to be a bit of a glitch, because I'm not exactly sure how sending 10 men to fight with a unit of 40 gives EVERYONE better armor and swords but hey it works for me! Quick and easy way to replenish an upgraded unit without rebuilding it. I try to keep "reserve" troops in one province consisting of at least one unit of each type. That way after a battle that involves upgraded troops I can replenish their ranks with the vanilla troops but still keep the upgrade.

A

[MidnitePiper]

How do you merge units?

Select the army - in the window at the bottom of the screen the units within the army stack are shown. Select any unit from that screen, drag and drop onto another unit - men will be removed from the unit you did the drag and drop on and placed into the unit you 'dropped' them on. The only variation is when the two units can merge without any leftovers - e.g. two 50-man archer units can make a single 100-man archer unit. When that happens, the commander the unit being dropped assumes command of the entire force (provided both generals are 0-command star and no V&Vs); the commander of the unit they are dropped onto vanishes into the combined unit. Any time a commander has command stars or V&Vs, he can no longer be merged into another unit - you can give him troops, but you can't vanish him into another leaders' unit. I'm constantly disbanding 1-man units of Sybaritic, Lazy, Strange unit commanders - once I've turned their men over to someone else...

Edit:

When merging, you can transfer upgrades to armies that don't have them.

This is a tool I use constantly - a single leader with armor or weapons bonuses - transfer a bunch of men without any upgrades at all into his command and his entire unit will benefit from whatever armor/weapons upgrades he has. Unlike valor, which is tracked on a man-by-man basis, armor and weapon upgrades seem to belong to the unit, not the individual.

Justification: I always figured that the commander just kept the weapons and armor of the dead - a little morbid maybe ("Here's some armor - yes, that's blood and waste, just clean it") but not a lot worse than giving a new guy a cot that belonged to someone who just died...

[bretwalda]

Hmm, are you sure about this upgrade through merging thing? I read somewhere that the game keeps track of the soldiers one by one not just entire units... That can possibly mean, that you may see an armor upgrade but in matter of fact only 10 men in that unit have it...

[Lacker]

I dunno, it lists it as an upgrade on the unit list....looks good to me..

[Procrustes]

Hmm, are you sure about this upgrade through merging thing? I read somewhere that the game keeps track of the soldiers one by one not just entire units... That can possibly mean, that you may see an armor upgrade but in matter of fact only 10 men in that unit have it...

I've seen it said that that is how valor works when you merge - you can see the new unit gets something like a weighted average of the two source units. I assumed it worked the same for armor, but perhaps not.

[bretwalda]

I've seen it said that that is how valor works when you merge - you can see the new unit gets something like a weighted average of the two source units. I assumed it worked the same for armor, but perhaps not.

Well, it can be tested one way. Maybe someone can do this because I don't have the patience it requires ;)

Here: take a unit with an upgrade that has only the leader left, or merge with another, so that all men go the the other unit only the leader remains. Anyway: you have a 1 man unit with lets say silver upgrade. Now fill the unit up with a no upgrade unit. Make sure that (theoretically) only 1 man has the upgrade in the unit (the leader). Now go to a battle with this unit and make sure the leader of the unit dies, but there are survivors in the unit. Next year check the unit whether it has the upgrade or not. q.e.d. (either way )

[Ludens]

Hmm, are you sure about this upgrade through merging thing? I read somewhere that the game keeps track of the soldiers one by one not just entire units... That can possibly mean, that you may see an armor upgrade but in matter of fact only 10 men in that unit have it...

The game keeps track of valour individually, but not armour and weapons. You should be able to test this with the battle logfiles. It is a bit of a debate how the game keeps track of morale upgrades and that elusive 'discipline' upgrade, but I don't think it works individually. However, I can't prove it.