So....

[The Spartan (Returns)]

now that i have a new GFX card, i can now play campaign.
so and tips before i play? (ive played battles already)

[Ulv]

yes, one:
read frogbeasteggs guide from beginning to end before you start :) you'll avoid alot of mistakes that are very easy to make..

[Derfasciti]

If you fail, don't give up. For me, I absolutely suck at battles but I try, and I believe, acording to the other players, we all get better even if it does seem to take forever.

[Martok]

God's Grace, welcome to the wonderful world of Medieval Total War!

Just a heads-up for you: Some players with new graphics cards and/or updated video drivers have problems with campaigns crashing. If you have any difficulties, I recommend you check out this thread in the Apothecary. LeftEyeNine has compiled a general list of solutions to the problem.

If you fail, don't give up. For me, I absolutely suck at battles but I try, and I believe, acording to the other players, we all get better even if it does seem to take forever.

You'll get there, man; just gotta be patient with yourself. It probably took me the better part of a year before I felt I could fight the AI with a reasonable degree of competence, and I was probably one of the slower learners here. I'm quite confident you'll be better than me before very long.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

God's Grace, welcome to the wonderful world of Medieval Total War!

Just a heads-up for you: Some players with new graphics cards and/or updated video drivers have problems with campaigns crashing. If you have any difficulties, I recommend you check out this thread in the Apothecary. LeftEyeNine has compiled a general list of solutions to the problem.


You'll get there, man; just gotta be patient with yourself. It probably took me the better part of a year before I felt I could fight the AI with a reasonable degree of competence, and I was probably one of the slower learners here. I'm quite confident you'll be better than me before very long.

thanks! also please still give some suggestions. a friend is still borrowing MTW. i reckon ill have it back by thursday.
heh, when i first played MTW before, i lost every quck battle. now, after a while i think i can call myself a TW veteran.

[Martok]

If you haven't already done so, I recommend you follow Ulv's suggestion and read frogbeastegg's A Beginners Guide to Medieval: Total War . It's a fairly exhaustive compilation of tips and advice for playing the game, and will do a far better job of getting you started than any poor words of mine.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

thanks. ill download the pdf version.

[Martok]

Excellent! Most new players find that FBE's Beginners Guide answers the majority of their questions as well--and often times better--than we ourselves can.

Of course, there's no need to be shy if you still have questions about the game. Folks here do their best to help everyone become a successful conqueror and warlord.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

i think im pretty comfortable with the campaign; not entirely though. any extra tips? i hope ill be able to start tommorow.

[Martok]

If you're a small faction (just 1-2 provinces), your priority should be to expand almost immediately--grab at least a couple provinces if it's reasonably practical. Once that's accomplished, work on refilling your treasury.

If you're a medium-sized faction (3-6 provinces), do your best to balance between building up your economy a bit (farming & mining upgrades) and training troops. In the beginning, don't bother building farm upgrades unless the province's base income is 300 florins or better.

If you're either the Byzantines or the HRE, build up your border armies as quickly as possible, while still trying to get your "money" provinces going. In the meantime, get down on your knees and pray that no one attacks you.

That's all overly-simplistic, of course, but it sort of gives you a general outline to follow. Also, keep in mind that I'm only talking about the very beginning of your campaign--say, the first 10-15 years. After that, your strategy will vary, depending on what's happening in the rest of world.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

unfortunatly my friend forgotten to return my game. so perhaps tommorow; unlikely however. maybe monday....

[The Spartan (Returns)]

i finally got to play MTW campaign! here are my impressions:
The Good:
fun campaign
crusades
pope
more...
The Bad:
weird movement of unit; how do you get them on to ships???

Overall: way more fun than Rome! this will fill my time before i get M2....

[Martok]

Glad you're enjoying the game, God's Grace.

Army movement across water works differently in MTW than in Rome; you don't actually place units on boats per se. In order to move a unit (or units) over water, you must have the following:

1.) A port in the province that you're invading from.

2.) You need to have a clear water "path". This requires haveing a ship in every sea region between your starting province and your target province.

2a.) The enemy faction cannot have any ships in the same sea territories as you. If they do, they must be sunk and destroyed first.

Once these conditions are met, just pick an army stack and move it to the province you wish to invade!

Note: Armies that invade by sea may *not* move back to the original province from which they started until you've constructed a port in the newly-conquered province. This also means that should your invading army fail to take the target province, it will be lost. So make sure you bring enough men to do the job. Good luck!

[drone]

Note: Armies that invade by sea may *not* move back to the original province from which they started until you've constructed a port in the newly-conquered province. This also means that should your invading army fail to take the target province, it will be lost. So make sure you bring enough men to do the job. Good luck!

And, of course, expect that if there is an existing port in the target province, it will be destroyed in the invasion. Seems to happen to me all the time. Don't send your king or heir...

[caravel]

i finally got to play MTW campaign! here are my impressions:
The Good:
fun campaign
crusades
pope
more...
The Bad:
weird movement of unit; how do you get them on to ships???

Overall: way more fun than Rome! this will fill my time before i get M2....

Welcome to the MTW forum, God's Grace (previously The Spartan of backroom fame!)

Unlike with RTW, MTW's ships are not really 'transport' in the true sense. The ships are your military fleets that protect the (invisible) trade and transport fleets. If you have a military fleet present in a particular sea zone, your armies can move through it. If you don't, they can't. If you want to move from coastal province A to coastal province B, you'll need at least one single ship fleet in every sea in between those two provinces. Agents can always move between ports regardless of fleets.

Some people dislike this kind of abstraction, personally I prefer it to RTW's approach which is a little too RTS for my liking. I dislike having to beach a ship and load men on to it. I prefer if that type of micromanagement is handled abstractly. I also feel that the existing system could have been improved upon wthout going to the RTS method (having proper admirals with V&V's, being able to move them around between different fleets, assign titles, better AI etc etc). I know many who would disagree with me of course.

Remember that if you are e.g. the Turks and you are allied with the Egyptians and you suddenly decide to launch a huge seabourn invasion from say Lesser Armenia, into their best coastal provinces of Antioch and Tripolia, you may think that because you're not at war with them, that you can invade without worrying about their shipping. This is not the case, and you will have to sink all of their ships first, starting a war in the process, and possibly lose any element of surprise.

Being at war can also seriously ruin your trade income. You may have traded with your new enemy in the past, all of that income will now be lost, and perhaps more importantly the enemy's ships will now be cutting your trade routes to other lands forcing you to destroy them.

[Martok]

And, of course, expect that if there is an existing port in the target province, it will be destroyed in the invasion. Seems to happen to me all the time. Don't send your king or heir...

Thanks drone, I forgot to mention that.

And it does bear repeating, even though you've just mentioned it: Do not allow your king or crown prince to lead an army on a seaborne invasion, as your king will then be cut off from the rest of your empire. More often than not, this triggers a mass rebellion/civil war that you probably don't want to deal with!

[The Spartan (Returns)]

also how do you retrain units?
(camp. tutorial crashes because it uses 800x600 res...)

[Martok]

also how do you retrain units?
(camp. tutorial crashes because it uses 800x600 res...)

1.) Make sure you're in a province that can train the unit.

2.) Open up the castle's training queue.

3.) Click on the army stack with the unit(s) you wish to retrain.

4.) Click and drag the specific unit (within the stack) over to the castle's training queue.

5.) Repeat step 4 to retrain more units within the same stack.


Note: If you wish, you can also retrain units to give them the latest in armour/weapon/valour/morale upgrades. (You can do this even for units that are already at full strength!) So if you have a province with a Cathedral, master armourer, master metalsmith, etc., it might behoove you to send your troops there if they're lacking in certain equipment.

[Geezer57]

6) And DON'T retrain more than one unit at a time in provinces subject to attack. If you're invaded, only the leftmost unit in the training queue will be available for use in the defense, and if you lose that battle the other units in the training queue will be lost forever. They're not captured, you can't ransom them, they're just gone forever!

[Martok]

Good point, Geezer. I don't often retrain units in border provinces, so I didn't think of that.

Welcome back, by the way.

[Geezer57]

Right back at 'ya!

[drone]

Are there any gotcha's to retraining units with heirs and kings? I haven't noticed anything, but can there be consequences, like the king dies from old age, or unrest issues?

[Martok]

Not that I've noticed, but then I don't retrain kings' units that often--I usually cannibalize men from another unit within the same army instead. (In other words, I'll deplete men from a second unit of RK's to replenish the RK's in my king's unit.) I retrain princes' units all the time, however; I don't see any reason why not.

[drone]

Well, the only reason to retrain a king's unit would be for weapon/armor upgrades. I've always been a little leery about "removing" him from the map. I don't think there are any unrest issues, I'm more worried about a potential game bug were a royal event to happen.

[Geezer57]

I've never noticed any "unrest" issues when retraining the ruler's unit, as long as the province involved is well-connected to the rest of the realm. Obviously, don't send the King for retraining to islands subject to naval blockade...
And I wouldn't put him anywhere deep in the retraining queue in a frontier province - top spot or not at all. Wouldn't want to lose him forever if an enemy invasion was successful.

One "gotcha" that annoys the heck out of me - if you upgrade the armor, morale, and/or weapons of your senior heir - and those upgrades aren't present in your most-developed province - when he ascends to the throne the upgrades will all be lost. Arrrggg! What, does he have to turn in all his up-to-date goodies for the traditional dynastic accoutrements?

[Martok]

I've never noticed any "unrest" issues when retraining the ruler's unit, as long as the province involved is well-connected to the rest of the realm. Obviously, don't send the King for retraining to islands subject to naval blockade...
And I wouldn't put him anywhere deep in the retraining queue in a frontier province - top spot or not at all. Wouldn't want to lose him forever if an enemy invasion was successful.

Agreed; couldn't have said it better.

One "gotcha" that annoys the heck out of me - if you upgrade the armor, morale, and/or weapons of your senior heir - and those upgrades aren't present in your most-developed province - when he ascends to the throne the upgrades will all be lost. Arrrggg! What, does he have to turn in all his up-to-date goodies for the traditional dynastic accoutrements?

Yep; exactly.

To be honest, though, I'd never noticed that. But then I don't upgrade my RK's that often, unless I already need to retrain them to replenish their losses. Royal Knights generally do well enough for me that I don't feel the need to upgrade them unless they're already right there in a province that has better weapons, armour, etc. Otherwise I don't bother.