Rome VS Medieval II

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Front line? What do you mean front line?! RTW and M2 were just a long series of sieges with maybe a large battle in between. There weren't any battle lines to speak of!

Stainless Steel largely fixed the spacing problem for M2 by drastically enlarging the map. There are both larger provinces and more of them.

Now M1 on the other hand, there was a game with an institutionalized battle line.

M1 was such a fantastically great game, if only it wasn't so buggy.

 

[Dachs]

If I had a problem with Stainless Steel, it's that it was just too vanilla. Sure, lots of stuff got upgraded, but the flow was fundamentally similar to the way the vanilla game, and it lacked that well-researched total conversion feel that EB has.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Stainless Steel largely fixed the spacing problem for M2 by drastically enlarging the map. There are both larger provinces and more of them.

Really?

You've piqued my interest, I'm going to look into that mod now...

 

[W|M]

There are also interesting titles and bonuses if a character stays in one city for more than a turn (e.g. King of Jerusalem, Patriarch of Constantinople).

 

[Atticus]

I just started to play M2TW, and have liked it so far, although my PC can't do justice to it's graphics. I like the Pope thingie, although Pope only hates me It adds to diplomacy. RTW was just about declaring war to each of your neighbours in turn, now you can't do that. (Although I've been excommunicated only once, and thus don't fully know how grave are it's consequences).

I wonder, is it supposed to be that the troops sometimes disobey you? I don't mean routing, but attacking some guys who are near their path.

 

[LightSpectra]

I wonder, is it supposed to be that the troops sometimes disobey you? I don't mean routing, but attacking some guys who are near their path.

Yes. The lower ranking your troops are, and the less experience they have, the more likely they're going to break formation in the middle of battle. It's especially true for viking troops.

 

[Dachs]

This was also the case for certain units in RTW, too.

 

[Atticus]

Yeah, I thought so when playing it, but now I had had long pause so it really stuck out. I think it's very fine feature, but not something you'd expect to happen. Usually characters do exactly as you order in video games. It was funny playing RTW BI after vanilla with Hun hordes, which you manipulate like Roman legions. I don't know how organized they were in reality, but the words "Hun horde" sounds like total chaos.

 

[Dachs]

It almost certainly wasn't total chaos, but the extent to which the Hunnic military could employ organized formations was probably limited. (Then again, the Romans couldn't maneuver their formations the way that you can maneuver them in RTW, so that's not really saying much.) The Hunnic military was chiefly geared toward comparatively small-scale operations with relatively little set-piece fighting, something that the RTW engine shows very badly.

 

[Atticus]

What do you think, which are the easiest and hardest factions to play in M2TW?

 

[shadowplay]

Easiest - Spain, or the Moors. You can go the entire game avoiding the hoardes from the east, which is the most difficult part of the game.

Hardest - Russia, or any of the factions that start right next to where the hoardes will likely appear.

 

[sendos]

You'd think that England would be rather easy to play perhaps?
Besides, when I played as the Germans, the Mongols in fact invaded the Middle East, just as I was setting up a base there because the pope told me to!

The Mongols basically crushed a few of my towns, even though they lost a lot of men. I'd say that the Germans are pretty easy because you are actually spoiled for choice in terms of which rebel town to take. You'd need to take some before neighbouring factions take them.

 

[sophie]

What do you think, which are the easiest and hardest factions to play in M2TW?

Meh, as long as you are competent at battles all of the factions are pretty damned easy. It's no EB, that's for sure.

 

[LightSpectra]

What do you think, which are the easiest and hardest factions to play in M2TW?

Personally I thought the Roman Empire in SS6.2 was immensely difficult due the lack of heavy infantry in the early game, plus being in a precarious position between Venice, Hungary and the Turks.

In vanilla M2:TW, it would be Russia probably, because they're always having financial troubles.

 

[Ajidica]

Odd. I found Russia comparatively easy due to the availablity of horse archers and those excellent AP units. I always found France a pain because you are surrounded by Milan, the HRE, Spain, England, and Denmark may chose to get in on it if they manage to take the Netherlands.

 

[Atticus]

Thanks folks!

My first game was as England, so I didn't really encounter the hordes. It was pretty easy as you got only Scotland at your back.

Then I played as Venice and thought to take my time. I wanted to see how the wold develops rather than going for an expansion spree, only to go bankrupt as I had no new territories to finance the armies because I was used to them. Then Milan, Hungary, HRE and Byzantium attacked me.

I started a third game as Sicily thinking that there'll be less blood. Only Byzantium has attacked me this far, but after taking nearby rebel settlements I ended up on crusade and my heir apparent is at the moment building us a colony in middle east.

 

[LightSpectra]

Odd. I found Russia comparatively easy due to the availablity of horse archers and those excellent AP units.

Ah, there's my problem. I hate horse archers and only use them against the enemy's, or as light melee cavalry.

I always found France a pain because you are surrounded by Milan, the HRE, Spain, England, and Denmark may chose to get in on it if they manage to take the Netherlands.

France is easy, because there's so many 'rebel' territories you can blitz at the start of the game to become a financial powerhouse.

 

[Atticus]

You can use horse archers to take bits of an enemy army when it has a long travel through your territories. That's how it went in history too.

 

[darkborg]

Rome TW.
M II is good, but I still go back to play RTW even today, a few times a yr. RTW is truly one of the best gaems ever.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

If I had a problem with Stainless Steel, it's that it was just too vanilla. Sure, lots of stuff got upgraded, but the flow was fundamentally similar to the way the vanilla game, and it lacked that well-researched total conversion feel that EB has.

You are absolutely correct on all accounts. It still seriously lacked in depth, even compared to Medieval I.