Medieval 2: Total War

[Menace]

That South Park episode was really funny. But I told you so Tac! Now to get you and spooky to square off. Is there a battle replay? Yeah, it blew my mind how fast it ran on Spook's machine. The only thing bad about it I have heard: The Halbrediers just sit there and get beaten to death by calvary, somthing about thier animation or other.

[:FI:TacticalS!]

I believe you refer to the well documented "two-hand bug." However, your explanation reminds me of husbands for some reason.

Tact - "I'm going on a crusade!" - S!

[AltarBoy]

Here's something nifty I found. You can now play as any of the factions you couldn't play before. Just do this:

Find your way to the Medieval II Total War\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign directory and youll see a file called descr_strat. Cut and Paste the unlockable section into the playable section. Now just save and close and you'll have all your factions unlocked.

You may have to add something at the end of the descr_strat like (descr_strat_me) if you run into any trouble.

[:FI:Macca]

Yes, this is how I unlocked Poland, without having to first conquer itto have it playable. It also works wth Rome Total War.

M

[:FI:TacticalS!]

There's actually an easier way mates. You can add the following to your preferences.cfg file -

[misc]
unlock_campaign = true

[:FI:Macca]

I like doing the hardway.













Actually ...

I didn't know that way, tactS..



Thx for the info;)

Mac

[:FI:TacticalS!]

Indeed Macca. This is a new parameter for MTW2. Your way was the only method for RTW.

[:FI:Sneaky_Russian]

Cheers Macca , been trying the NTW mod

[:FI:Macca]

Hey, Sneaky

sweet, isn't it?

I wanna CA to make a full campaign XVII-XIX Cent. Total War .....

That would be also cool;)

Spring of Nations...Romanticism....French Revolution and stuff....

But the mod is really nice, I must say;)

M

[:FI:TacticalS!]

Ok finished my first short campaign with the English (M/M). That's just over 120 turns in 3-4 days (and no I haven't slept and me very tired ).

Had a great time but realized I need to focus and develop my Merchants and the priesthood/Pope thing better next time. Having said that my Cardinal was the Pope for a period of time, though I forgot to really take advantage of this power. Silly me.

Now thinking of trying another faction out. Probably will try at least one more short campaign with the vanilla game. Actually, given that CA will be patching this game some more I would hate messing my install up with any mods but February seems far away at the moment. I might eventually grab one not sure yet.

Did some testing with FRAPS last night. Running with my Auto-Detect settings (Shaders 2, Troop Size Normal, most details to High, Medium textures, 2xAA, 4xAF). Performance was very good except in castle sieges. After messing around for @2 hours came to the conclusion the biggest problem is Shadows when it comes to frame rate. Now using Lowest Shadows (some disable them altogether) and have a solid 20-30 fps during castle sieges. Not bad for my old rig.

Actually, from what I have read in the MTW2 circles and elsewhere, the lads with the newer rigs having Duo Core doesn't seem to be worth it since games (like MTW2) only recognize 1 of the cores. Given the expense of 2 CPUs, at least for early adopters, their CPU speeds are no better (or worst) than my old P4 3.06 GHz HT CPU. Granted their motherboards and video card systems is superior to my AGP BFG 6800 GT 256 MB vid card. Hopefully Vista and future games will take full use of Duo and Quad CPU systems.

So who all plays Medieval II Total War? Macca, Sneaky, AltarBoy, TS!, Spooky . . . Stories guys. What's going on in your medieval worlds?

I think if we mention there are male elves that look like fairies we can get Falcon interested in the game. [Tactical runs and hides ]

TS!

[AltarBoy]

Well, I decided to play Russia and boy what territory to cover! Haven't been trading with other countries but Poland's been bugging me for some time and had some battles with her. Took over Helsinki and Sweden. But Russia is in a perfect location for expansion. I could head west and South in a pincer campaign. Money is the key to military expansion and that's something I have to work on. Using my assassins to take everyone out! Had some funny moments with them (like the cut scene where the door slams into his face. ) I think this game will get Best Game for 2006 for me. Now where's me bloody bottle of Vodka!

[:FI:Macca]

Well, maybe I'm post some After Action Report when I'm back from the university and havesome tme. Don't know when I'll have some more ime as end of semester is coming, exams and other stuff of that kind...

M

[:FI:TacticalS!]

Rgr Macca!

Ok here is my sorry little story. Instead of moving onto Scotland right away last night I decided to continue with England. I was thinking about enjoying a Long Campaign. Well that didn't happen.

So there I was, having destroyed the Scots and French, feeling all global domination British style, when it occurred to me that the Papal States were in my way to sweeping further east. Hey that little guy in white won't be too tough, right? Besides I was just excommunicated because of wiping out France. What's the harm, eh mates?

Well I only had 1 full stack (elite) army and 1 smaller, secondary army at my disposal. After quickly taking Paris from the Papal States, in walked 5+ full stack armies of quality troops courtesy of the Pope. They quickly divided my empire in half taking several newly acquired settlements. I later quickly lost several castles as I painfully learned my mistake of not keeping sufficient garrison to man the towers (thought they worked on their own like RTW ).

In the end I was left wondering where is the passive AI? Or the inability of the AI to launch a decent siege attack? 'Cause the Papal States just steamrolled over my empire, tore down castle walls, and was just rather nasty to my women folk.

So for the first time (I think) I abandon a TW campaign. Discouragement and frustration of my lack of understanding (i.e., don't attack the Pope and put proper garrisons in castles) was too overwhelming.

With the cleansing feeling that the delete key brings I moved into my Scotland campaign. I left it last night about 50 turns completed. I have conquered the British Isles and Caen. The British only have 1-2 settlements left, and are fighting with my French allies. I have been the 1st ranked faction with regard to finances for most of this campaign, and have lots of allies and trade agreements. I am finally using my merchants and priests well.

Currently building my military infrastructure at Caen's castle to gain access to better Scottish units. I guess the French will be next on the menu. However, I will not be attacking the Papal States this time around.

Tact – “got owned by the Pope” – S!

[:FI:TacticalS!]

In case you TW boys were unaware CA has a calendar contest running this year. The first calendar (January ) is now ready for download at their website here. Nice image and neat medieval facts for January. It has found a home on my work PC (but no worries mates my screensaver is still a collection of awesome IL-2 images ).

So far I have played and won short campaigns with the English and Scottish.

The other day I installed a bug-fix only mod (Medieval II Total War Lite Mod), and I'm presently enjoying HRE. All my campaigns have been with M/M.

What's happening folks?

TS!

[AltarBoy]

It's whining time! Ever notice how your enemy got more moves over the map than you do? I left some troops outside of my castle and suddenly they turned into rebels like some fast acting virus. They were no enemy priests or other units there. Strange. Ok whining done. Still love the game. BTW got some probs managing my money. It keeps running out even though I set the AI to control it. Any tips?