New to MTW

[naut]

Yes BlackHat, that is something added in VI.

Also I strongly recommend VI! Go get it now, it cost me £4.50. So I'm sure you could get it for $2-$5.

[Martok]

Also I strongly recommend VI! Go get it now, it cost me £4.50. So I'm sure you could get it for $2-$5.

I second that. Viking Invasion is an excellent expansion pack, in addition to which it allows you to try out the numerous excellent mods as well.

[Quickening]

Thanks for your support and encouragement everybody! I have one more part to post and it will be the last. Although I love doing them and love hearing all your comments and feedback, it simply takes up too much time on a 56k modem. If I play for an hour then it takes about two hours to upload all the screenshots and write the post.
I have actually been switching back and forth between Medieval and Rome because I actually love them both. They are different but both brilliant.
I hope I will be able to continue my "journal" at somepoint because they are great fun to write!

[caravel]

@Quickening: I'm late noticing your topic sorry. Did you install Viking Invasion yet? VI will update your existing MTW, fix many bugs and add many new units. From your screenshots it appears that you are playing MTW 1.0, due to the longbowmen and crossbows/arbalests fielded in most of your battles. This is actually a bug, and crossbows, arbalests and longbows should not be available until 1205 which is the start of the high era*. This was fixed in the MTW 1.1 patch, which you don't need if you install VI. VI won't be compatible with your existing savegames, so you'll need to finish off any ongoing campaigns first.

Looking at some of your screenshots I was impressed by how quickly you got into the game. MTW utilises a sort of loose rock/paper/scissors approach for the real time battles. Basically: swords beats spears beats cavalry beats swords. In even more basic terms, anyone on the ground not holding a spear is very vulnerable to a cavalry charge, which is why your Urban Militia fared badly vs enemy cavalry. The Militia Sergeants (Robin of Locksley's unit in your case) are as far as functionality goes an axe infantry unit (a better version of Urban Militia), with an armour piercing attack. VS Feudal Sergeants, which are spearmen, they stand a very good chance of winning the day.

Generally in MTW there are a few units that don't fall into the rock/paper/scissors category and those are the missiles (the javelins/bows/longbows and crossbows) and the pole arms units. The pole arms units, which you probably won't have encountered yet, such as halberdiers and billmen are specialised cavalry attacking infantry. Unlike spears, whose role is to hold cavalry to stop them breaking through your lines and wreaking havoc, pole arms are there to actually attack and kill cavalry.

Also other factors such as morale, valour, fatigue, height advantage, forest cover and more can play a big part in determining any battle and often swing the odds great in favour of say an elite unit of swordsmen vs a not so good unit of cavalry, or allow an elite units of heavy cavalry to frontal charge and rout a unit of spearmen..

*MTW/VI has three eras: Early (1087 - 1204), High (1205 - 1320), Late (1321 - 1453).