The campaign map is just too confusing - curses!

[timoth]

Well bought this game as I wanted to like it

I used to play Shogun Total War which was a classic in terms of atmosphere and battles and simplicty

So playing the new Medieval Total War 2 - I really want to like it in terms of getting into the battles and the great graphics it has

But the campaign map is just confusing the hell out of me

I can't remember from turn to turn what 1 city is trying to produce, also I lose track of army movements and in some turns I forget to move an army in to attack

Things are disabled sometimes and I don't know why?

Some cities start revolting and I haven't a clue how to stop it

Also all cities need a General in them so you can specify what to build manually - whats that about? Surely a Generals place is on the battlefield, not in a silly town so you can specify a build order? And you can't just make Generals which is another problem

I think this is going to be the killer reason to stop playing it - its just too hard to keep track of everything in every new turn

The campaign map is just too confusing, and there is too much management of the campaign map that just gets in the way of wanting to play the battles out

Why can't the developers keep things simple? They seem to pander to reviewers as they think the more complex a game is, the more depth it has. But this is exactly opposite what the average gamer wants - too much complexity is a turn off

Well if I go back to the game, I will have to figure out what each city is doing, whats been produced where and why, and what figures need moving and where to, and if I can't remember then I won't play the game again

What a waste as the battles seem quite fun - and thats what I want from the game fun, not complexity rubbish

[Gampie]

Also all cities need a General in them so you can specify what to build manually - whats that about?

No, your cities don't need a general to do that. You must unlock the option "Manage all settlements". I think it's somewhere in the Game Options. That way you can choose what your cities have to produce.
I had the same problem as you when I first played Rome: Total War. You gotta read the manual. ;-)

The jump from Shogun to Medieval 2 might be too much at first. If you would have played RTW you would have an easy time since M2TW is sooooo much like RTW. But the campaign map is indeed more cluttered up. I would say, give it a go. Even though the map is more complex than Shogun, it does offer you much more possibilities (bridge battles, ambushes, forts, watchtowers, roads, ... all these things are not available in Shogun/Medieval 1 TW).

[Silver Rusher]

Don't worry, you will get the hang of it eventually. I felt the same way when I first started playing Rome. But after my first Julii campaign I had pretty much everything sussed.

[Incongruous]

Yeah Don't Worry about it.
I was the same in my first Shogun Campaign, it scared the stuffing out of me.

Just remember to keep a load of cheap units in you're settlements.

I bet in a couple of week you'll be showing us pics of you're empire!

[timoth]

Thanks for the kind replies

Perhaps I can get to grips with it eventually

But another example of the complexity is the Cities/Castles options. There are a myriad of different buildings that can be built - loads of different types that make the process of choosing what to build next too complicated

I just want to build infantry men - so build a barracks right?

No, not that simple! You have to build other weird buildings that can eventually transform into a barracks after goodness knows what upgrading!!!!!! Help!

There must be something like 50 buildings you can make. Why make it so complicated. Is this fun? I don't think so

Rome Total War turned me off because there were so many different unit types you had to get to know - skirmishers, special skirmishers, special arab skirmishers with special fire arms, special Pope Skirmishers that are uber special, special infantry only found in Africa that if you confront them with normal infantry counters, doesn't work and you get decimated. Special units with silly names that have great hit factors, 10 different cavalry types for use in different situations etc - What do I build???

Shogun was great because there was a simple distinction between the units - light cavalry, heavy cavalry, peasants, spearmen, elite infantry and archers - simple and great

Here is to complex gaming that is too complicated and not fun!

[Aquitaine]

Well....yeah. It's a little complex. Not extraordinarily so (even with all the different units, there are still only a handful of basic types) but it's not your basic, straightforward game. I don't think it even tries to be.

With all due respect, if you don't have the patience to either read the manual or figure it out, then yeah, you probably won't like the game. Nothing wrong with that though, doesn't mean you're a bad person. :)

[IceTorque]

I too dislike micro-manageing settlement build/recruit queues and prefer simple and clear cut troop types, and I positively hate tech trees, I just want to role play my generals and army and make decisions similar to what a general in command of an army would make. Decisions like how many men to allocate to gather supplies and/or guard my supply lines, which route to take and choosing where to fight my next battle etc.

Alas, the mass market requires nay demands much more than this, they demand the large unit rosters and complicated tech trees that CA provide.
As already suggested you will soon get used to the game and will realize that the tech tree is really not too complicated and that the recruitment rosters are fairly simple once you get to know each factions good and not so good units. The auto-manage settlement for me is a must and really reduces the amount of work the campaign map at first seems to demand.

Also, as soon as we can access the required files, it really is a simple thing to customize the game to your own unique version of TW.