Medieval:Total War

It was on easy but it was me against the rest of Europe for long periods of the game and I didn't change tax rates so I kept on having rebellions. My favoruite unit has to be the heavy cavalry types. My next game will be on normal.
 
i played MTW most of yesterday, including the strategic and tactical tutorials.

i don't get the game - it certainly isn't like other RTS titles despite having some similar features.

but since just about everyone is raving about it, including gaming mags, i'll give it a few more goes. i'm SURE it's fun but not quite yet for me... maybe i should actually START wars (all i've been doing so far is building up my provinces and my armies)

i've also tried consulting gameFAQS but there are few since this game is still rather new
 
I just got the game this weekend and am having some serious problems with it. In the tactical map, all of my men show up as blurry white boxes, and groups of trees show up as blurry white rectangles. On the strategic screen, the map turns completely white at random times for no reason.

I can't play the game like this! I'm going insane! :suicide:



edit: have you ever noticed how in the suicide smilie, the head starts to fall backward before the gun goes off?
 
Well, I've got this game on my puter & it is Shogun reincarnate (with all Shogun bugs). Shogun had the same game crashing as well, - by the way it seems that game work in Win 98 more stable then in Millenium or 2000. (In totalwar.org forum some developer guy tore his hairs out & brought soot on his head explaining that.... you simply can't play on 2000 platform properly :).
Well, all in all I'm sure that Game is complete success, but I couldn't find any proper Strategy guide in totalwar.org site or in any given links. In gamefaqs.com I found some stupid ideas about game editing, but... (Their "in-depth" strategy idea for Danes is pure laughing stock indeed.)
Can anybody give me some strategical advice for this Game?
(Don't bother explain me about local trade routine & weird situation with difference between Defence & Armor factors (Defence for Melee, Armor for Arrows resistance.) Don't bother explain importance of King placement - there is pure link between position of province with your King & unrest level in all other Provinces. Unrest factor is multiplicative ratio of number of provinces between Province in question & your King, counted as minimal number of King steps from his current province & province in question. Don't bother explain about succession situation - if your King died his elder son go immediately to MOST DEVELOPED province of your Empire. Just imagine some weird (but common for this game) situation: You are English. Your glorious Army under Prince John command take action in victorious Crusade. You just have got Antioch & Jerusalem (there are very prosperous & developed provinces in comparison with your England situation). His elder brother Prince Richard (Lionheart) preferred to fight against evil Frenches & whipped them mightily over all France. Then... Their father - King Henry died. Most developed province is Antioch. Richard goes to Antioch. John is in Jerusalem. Beheaded English Army revolted (next-in-command has very high "Pride" factor for goodness of all country - usually high "Pride" is good thing, but in some situation it's trouble. Big & hairy trouble!) Let's check distance between Antioch & ol'mother England". Wow... All your English provinces revolted now! All your "home revenue" is gone & your mercenaries began slipping into the thin air! 1 year from Henry dead & Richard is inprisoned by German King (as in real Life) & John is just a beggar...
Conclusion - don't overextend your territory. Well, I know it.

I ask about pure & straightforward STRATEGY GUIDE - not poor thing that was published.
For Example: Strategy Guide for Almohad Faction.
What is Almohad priority? (Almohad must be Iberian-centred power with Cordoba/Castille "heart" regions & Navarre, Aragon, Valencia, Granada, Marocco, Portugal, Leon as Almohad "core" & Algeria & Tunis as money-making "soft underbelly" - not vice versa.)
Why? (Almohad units are best in Defense. Their Light Cavalry are crappy. Heavy Cavalry - overexpensive. Horse Archers (in form of Berber Camels) are good, but their speed don't get them a chance in pursuit of Spanish Jinettes, for example. Infantry - it is strong side of Western Arab' guys! Almohad Urban Militia - just kings in direct combats & their Nubian Spearmen - laughingly cheap & reliable in Cavalry stopping issue.) In my campaigns as Almohad I unvariable get into battlefield with 7:2 ratio against Spaniards or French & just pulp them down. Yep, in "fair battle" one 40 French Feudal Knights can annihilate my 100 Nubian Spearmen by "one hand". But 5 stack of 40 French Knights (i.e. 200 guys) invariably gone down under 7 stacks of 100 Nubian Spearmen (i.e. 700 guys)! Take in consideration that I can train & maintain 2100 Nubian Spearmen for the same money as France for 200 Knights! Think global - God on the Side of Great Batallions! One bad thing here - I can't move my monstrous armees fast enough then my Empire resembled big Rock - non-penetrable, but not very active :(. Then I must use Diplomacy & move my slow forces by diplomatic means, but not by direct assault. Another important thing is fast technological development of Christians countries in com-parison with Muslims. Then my forces would be inferior in no time & I must get as many Upgrades features as possible. Most simple Upgrades can be done in Armoury, but you need to have Iron deposites for their installation. No one Africa provinces has Iron, but there is a plenty Iron in Spanish provinces. Then you must crush Spain in first 10-15 years of game, or be History. But it is finicky business, because you haven't good offensive Units at all!
There is my method of getting off Spain by Almohads in no time (in 1091 year to be exact - i.e. 4 year of game) on Expert Level of this marvelous game. (Success is guaranteed if you can win two battles: 700 Almo vs 200 Spaniards & 900 (or less - subtract your losses in previous battle 700:200) Almo vs 700 (or less - subtract Spaniard losses in 700:200) Spaniards.) Let's see...

bla-bla-bla

Can you get me something possible?

Sincerely yours, Alex.
 
I haven't found any guides for the game...

After having a couple of games I started to follow my King statistics more carefully. As the Spanish, my first King was great but then I got an inbred king with few relatives :( and the next in line for the throne has the Dread rating completely full :eek:
 
The battle element would probably be reduced in a more Civ type game because its easy to get a mismatch of units. Who would bother fighting a battle when the opposition had tanks and you had spearmen etc.
 
The problem with MTW combat is it rewards quality over quantity far too much.

Since only 1000 men per side on a battlefield at the one time if you put together an army of 1000 quality troops you can easily crush an enormous army of inferior quality troops as they will be sent in piecemeal, 1000 at a time, rather than all at once. Brought on as reinforcements only after units are dead or have left the field -and the time that takes- removes much of the value of numbers ESPECIALLY in the attack against good hand to hand fighters.

In my opinion if it is 400 men VS 4000 men then the battle should be fought as 40 men VS 400 (or perhaps ideally as 100 men VS 1000) if the battle simulator can't handle more than 1000 men per side at the same time.


At present if you route an army once, very often then next 3000 men (if army 4000) will immediately retreat without fighting!
 
Yep that is one of the major problems with the game. When in previews it started mentioning a 10000 limit, I thought you might actually be allowed that amount in a campain. I guess one of the problems is that if each side was allowed an army of 10 000 then it would be possible for a battle with 100 000 men fighting... (If there were 10 nations fighting in a province).

Anyone had the weird rebel armies effect? If you attack someone all your provinces rebel, but on the probability of rebellions section it says 0%.
 
Originally posted by Moff Jerjerrod
You'll be happy to know that there are Jewish communities in some of the provinces, esp. the one's in the ME.

There are 6 religions in MTW; Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Heretics, pagans, and Judaism.
True, BUT, you can only play Catholics, Orthodox, or Muslims. I first played the game as Early English (Catholics) on Normal difficulty. I found the the computer could run the battles for me better so I always automated them, plus it made the game faster. :) I took over most of Europe and got bored but it did teach me a lot about the game. Now I am currently playing the Early Danes (Catholics) on the hardest difficulty level and while it is a little bit more challenging it still feels pretty easy; although, I do believe that in the select screen it says that the Danes are easy to play and it is like play one difficultly level lower (I guess because of their position in the world). I don't really think that is true since all the rules are the same but with the easy time I am having it may be.

Ex-communication is much more devastating on the harder difficultly levels, sending your countries into rebelion much faster. The secret of rebelions is either lowering the taxes, keep enough troops in the fief, or a mixture of the two. Make sure you keep the loyalty at 100% or more. Every point below 100 has an one for one chance to cause rebelion. Example: if you have a loyalty of 91% then there is a 9% chance that a rebelion will start. Peasants are good troops to keep around to raise loyalty as they are cheaper to support than most other troops when you factor support per troop. It doesn't seem to matter how skilled the troops are just the numbers. [/end mini-guide] ;)

More tips:
Razing
Very effective on the harder difficultly levels because your opponents will have more effective troops than the lower difficulty levels. Instead of trying to hold a providence that is surrounded by more troops than you have, attack another weakly defended one. What this does is, if the providence you invade has structures, gives you money for taking over the new providence and allows you to more than likely not get attacked in return this round. Next round attack another providence and watch your coffers fill with florins!

Correction: Danes are considered Moderate difficultly in the Early period and Hard in the High and Late periods. I will have to try a harder faction next game.
 
me and a freind are going to start a Forum for modding and discussing Total War, we hope it can get to the level of the CivFanatics forums, anyway, we need some staff ready before our host will make the forums, anyone whos interested e-mail me at Jandor01@hotmail.com or my freind at senoj_civ@hotmail.com
 
Has anyone played the scenarios? I am think of doing those as the campaign seems pretty easy, even on the hardest difficulty level.
 
im glad your showing interest in the forums munzy (by e-mail) we only need 2 more members to get up and running :goodjob:
 
Although this game is fun, there are a few things about it that bug me. Most of these have to with being a catholic power. For instance, in one recent game I was France and was preparing my next campaign against the English when the Aragonese invaded, even though they were my ally. They take Toulouse, but my forces still hold the castle. I divert troops and drive them back into Spain.

I then get a message from the Pope commanding me to halt my attacks against my fellow Christians in Aragon. I send an emissary to the Aragonese king proposing a ceasefire. It is rejected. I don't do anything for the next two turns, hoping to obey the Holy Father but keeping my army at the border to discourage further attacks. After two turns the Pope excommunicates me! Didn't I TRY to make peace??? Excommunication is extremely annoying as it allows other Christian powers to launch crusades against you.

Naval combat also brings up some annoying bugs. Sometimes i'll get a message out of the blue telling me that there has been a naval battle in a particular sea, and that one or more of my ships has been lost. I check the menu that tells who's at war with who and NO ONE IS AT WAR WITH ME. Who destroyed my ships? Pirates?

Oh well. I'll probably keep playing, since it is a good game, despite it's problems.
 
I do find it annoying when my ships are attacked without any warning but usually someone declares war as well. Excommunications seems to be based on whether you are are sieging a castle of theirs although it can also include just attacking them. Just defending them will not get you excommunicated.
 
Hi all, saw a few people were asking about MTW forums, well weve just opened a new one if people are interested.

Forum is here.

Oh and if any of you mod the game, we are also offering a free forum run by you to discuss your mod and where you can upload your mod/other creations.

Hope to see you all there.

Kentonio
 
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