LibriumArcana.Games

Right I am that behind the times.

Anyways I picked this up a month or two ago at best buy for 20 bucks. Due to work and school I don't play that often, but I am in the middle of an English save and it's going well. ... In a military sense. The game is the medium difficultly.

Having conqeared all the isles and north and central France (France is down to two provinces, my plan is to make sure they won't be a problem again), I'm the most powerful Christian faction in the game annnd the most unpopular.

The Pope dislikes me (I got jumped on the way to the Crusade and my Crusade army fell apart) but due to mass priest and church building I stave off the excommunication. However I am at war with France, the Holy Roman Empire (which in this game is excommunicate so neither Holy Roman or at 4 provinces an Empire), Milan and Portugal. Scottland was at war with me (the bastards! I offer them money and alliance and trade and maps and they backstabbed me! Literally!). Scottland won't be waging any other wars... Ever.

What I would like to do is work out a peace. I have a 2 or 3 cardinals so there are good odds I can decide the next Pope (Theologian Guild + Abbey kicks so much ass!). So what I want to do is kill France, work out a peace with the Italians and Germans and reorganize and build up my lands. I'm playing with the idea of wiping out Portugal so I'm close enough to pick fights with Muslims.

My big goal is to unlock the Byzantine Empire (the true Roman Empire!) and go nuts there.

So I'm opening the floor to advice, how can I get the Italians and Germans at least off my back? Can I expect a peace to hold if the Pope doesn't care for me? Should I just give up and focus on making a Christian Superstate? Also is the only way to unlock a faction by conquering them?

Alright. End the war with france. By killing them. The taking of their cities should defray the costs of all those troops. Now that the isles are safe you can draw back garrisons of your cities.

The germans are excommunicated, so you dont need to worry about papal censure if you take them out. Once that is done most of the others will happily accept ceasefires. Offer them money and trade rights. Trust me, you will more than make up for the money you lose via tribute in trade income within a few turns.

Once that is done, rebuild your economy. I would recommend the strategic use of merchants.

The biggest problem with pretty much any Total War game that I've played is that diplomacy is for the most part a joke. People that have been your allies for 3/4s of the game who are about a tenth your size and who you have great relations with will suddenly turn around and stab you in the back while your troops are somewhere else. The only thing allying does is keep them from attacking you as par for the course. They also almost never accept peace terms.

In terms of the Pope, the easiest way to do it is to control the Council of Cardinals. Easiest way to do that is have the Theologian HQ and then build a Cathedral in that city. You will basically pop out ready made Cardinals from that city and from there you can control the Papacy. Also, don't be afraid to assassinate the Pope if he seriously pisses you off (But don't get caught doing it... that leads to bad things).

The war with the Germans and the Italians will probably eventually cool down, just keep an army along that front and you should be able to respond to a number of things they send. That will free up whatever else you have to war with Portugal.

The Byzantine Empire is rather meh, really. Their troops aren't all that spectacular (in my opinion) and in the late game they don't get any good gunpowder weapons. If you eventually get the Kingdoms expansion, the Byzantine Empire is much much better there (Go Greek Fire!)

I got the gold complete version so kingdoms was included.

Well you inspired me to start a game playing as England and I rediscovered a fun way to land grab. Usually when a person starts a war with you they aren't going to offer you terms. But if you start a war with someone that doesn't want the war, they'll offer you a ceasefire, wherein you can actually demand they hand over some land and they will agree to the terms.

I just did this twice. France started a war with me while I was getting ready to kick the Scots out of the Isles. I hadn't attacked the Scots yet so I was free to turn South on the French and fight a few battles while they were demanding I become their vassal about every other turn. After a big fight just outside Angers I pretty much wiped out their armies in the North and took Angers shortly after. They came to me demanding I become a vassal again and for Shits and giggles I decided to see if they would agree to a ceasefire and to my surprise they did, so I threw in Rennes and picked up another territory.

While all this had been going on, the Crusade had been called and my Faction Leader rode down at the head of the army to get to Jerusalem. I wasn't in much of a rush because I didn't really have a desire to take Jerusalem. Poland beat me to Jerusalem so I decided to grab Antioch, which was currently not under anyone's control. Well the turn after I grab Antioch, the Egyptians come to me asking for peace. I ask for Acre in return at first and to my surprise the terms are still under "Very Generous" so I toss Damascus in there as well so I got two cities out of the deal. Now I'm sitting on a sizable colony in the Levant.

I was so pissed off after homework that I played last night. The AI must feel sorry about that. Germany lost a fortress and a city. I elected my own Pope and am about to win a Crusade. France as been wiped out and I took Milan's big city in France. I was tied of Dijon and Metz being used as staging grounds for invasion. France also no longer exists and I allied with Denmark. The Italians will get one chance at peace and if they're dumb not take it they go on the ashheap of history to.

Side note: Poland was more then happy to trade maps with me and they are fucking huge, from Southern Russia all the way to Central Germany huge. No wonder the Danes wanted an alliance.

Yeah, I've noticed Poland tends to get huge because there's a lot of open space around there and Denmark and Russia don't usually jump on it quickly. They're big in my game as well, and I have an alliance with them. Which I think is mostly surviving because we don't share any borders.

In my own game I just wiped out the Scots, Germany started a war with me, instantly regretted it and wanted peace, I got Metz out of the deal. I'm having an off again on again war with Spain and my colony in the Levant is giving me good enough priests that I've got a bunch of cardinals now.

Poland declared war on me last night. I won the Crusade and now control Tunisia. Gonna have to get the Italians or the Germans off my back so I can push back Poland and expand my North African holdings.

Pope loves me now, just gotta keep it that way despite being at war with most of Christendom.

Side note: The Papal states cover all of Italy expect the north of Florence. Is that normal?

The Papal states getting decently large isn't normal, but it does happen occasionally. They aren't as aggressive as other nations, but they do go to war.

For my own game I'm getting into a tight situation. Germany reignited their war and tried to re-take Metz, The war with Spain has gotten hot again and instead of taking them up on their ceasefire (again) after I crushed their army I told them to go blow themselves. Milan started a war against me, but I'd been expecting that one for awhile so I was prepared and managed a quick counterattack that grabbed Dijon. Then France decided to start a war against me as well and has an army stacked with Crusade units (eep). So in Europe I'm in a bit of tight spot, but I have a top-of-the-line army I just finished that is getting ready to run around and beat back the attacks until the wars cool down again and I can go back on the offensive. It just grabbed Paris in a quick assault and after leaving the siege equipment and a mayor behind has moved on. In the Levant however, the Mongols have arrived and are beelining towards Antioch. I've got troops stationed for a bridge battle and I'm really hoping that the stakes my longbowmen can put down will ruin the day of the Mongolian cavalry.

In at least a little good news I have a Cardinal who is in position to become the Pope and control most of the Council. In addition my recent acquisitions means I am not hemorrhaging money.

Milan I wouldn't worry about, maybe it's just me but their armies suuuucccckkkk. All militia and such, maybe they don't have fortresses in my save. I would focus my attacks on German fortresses. From what I see the Mongols focus on Asia Minor.

By the way how do I get the Longbowmen to put down stakes, I can't find it in the battles.

I'm hoping to expand my North African holdings, Wiping out a few more factions so they can't bother me anymore also appeals. I do feel lucky that all my enemies are attacking from the East. Spain has been quiet. I think I should keep an army ready on that border just in case.

That's the thing about Milan and Venice. Their Militia don't suck. They aren't quite as good as the stuff they can get from castles, but Genoese Crossbow Militia can ruin your day if you aren't careful and their Italian Spear Militia are just as good as Armored Sergeants. The Mongols may focus on Asia Minor, but I'm in Asia Minor right now and it is helping my coffers out so I'm not eager to lose it.

As for Germany, they are pretty small right now, not a big threat in the long run. Right now they serve as a buffer between me and Poland. I'd rather smash France for the Fortresses they have and Milan for their cities.

Stakes can only be put down before the battle begins, the slot is where their option to use fire arrows is. I usually start my longbowmen out in loose formation if I can so the stakes cover more area and then go back into tight formation once the battle has started. Another fun thing to do if you have a city being besieged by an enemy that has a lot of cavalry.

1. Place stakes at the most likely path of entry.
2. Place stakes just in front of town square.
3. ???
4. Profit.

Just faced off against France's Crusader stack at Dijon. It went perfectly well. How perfect? The stack of over 1300 men is gone and they killed a grand total 11 of my men (I lost more from friendly fire). How did I achieve this brutal route? Strategically placed stakes and archers. I had three longbowmen, 2 mercenary crossbowmen, and a militia archer unit, as well as 7 infantry units. They had 5 Crusader Knight units, 7 Crusader sergeants, 2 mailed knights, 1 ballista unit, and a couple archers.

I started by setting up my stakes, one at the gate, one halfway to the town square, one just in front of the town square and pulled most of my units back to the square. Once the battle began it was clear that the French were just going to smash through my walls and charge in so I moved all my units back and created a favorite little strategy I like to call The Pocket.

The Pocket is simple, you have your infantry back some from the entrance so there is a large pocket of space. You position one unit of archers on either side of this pocket to close it up and position the rest of your archers behind the infantry. This creates a brutal killing zone.

So the French break down my walls and come charging in. Since they didn't go through the gates, most of their cavalry survives this initial charge through the gate. Some of their cavalry immediately charges for the town square and gets completely annihilated by my second set of stakes, the rest of their cavalry takes a detour to get past that stake and pauses outside of my archer's range while their infantry makes the first charge. The long straight away leading to the town square becomes a killing field as my archers take their shots, and once they pass into the town square I let my two other archers open fire and their infantry charge essentially shatters. While their infantry are pulling back what's left of their cavalry comes charging up and impales themselves on my last set of stakes. They pull back heavily injured.

Their infantry and cavalry make one more combined charge and while I'm distracted with this, they've sneaked two units around to my side (I can tend to get a little tunnel vision during these fights). Luckily my melee troops and archers stationed near that side get the enemy on that side routing fairly easily shortly after I have decimated their last charge. By now all of their cavalry is dead and most of their infantry has died either charging into arrow fire or while running away from it. What few units they have left are picked off until they break and run by my archers and then I sent two infantry units to go take out the ballista.

Does anyone here do multiplayer games online?

I'd be willing to give it a shot this week since it's spring break.

Hey Frigid. Are you gonna try Empire and/or Napoleon TW after Medieval 2?

I'm curious how these two games stack up next to each other.

From everything I've heard, Empire was a buggy POS that is still broken after a year's worth of patches, and Napoleon was supposed to be an expansion that they turned into a full sequel (though they did at least drop $10 off normal list price).

That said, most reviews are saying Napoleon is what Empire SHOULD have been, and that if you want a game in that rough period, get Napoleon.

Hey Frigid. Are you gonna try Empire and/or Napoleon TW after Medieval 2?

To be honest I have doubts. Total War Empire is very much their worse game, which is sad. There's also the fact that bluntly, I didn't want them making a gunpowder game in the first place. I thought they should have looked into India and Chinese centered games. As it stands the series is deeply Euro-centric, which is a glut on the market. This is especially galling as they started out with a game set in fucking Japan!

The 2 biggest groups of computer users are gonna be the Chinese and the Indians soon, also... There are literally hundreds of Euro games. Let's be different just this once.

Rome was my favorite by a long shot. Would love that to be updated to Nap status.

An Asia TW would be interesting, mainly because it hasn't been done and frigid's point about the market being oversaturated with Euro-centrism is a good one.

Shogun 2 TW? I never played the first one.

Hey Frigid, I've been playing Age of Empires 3 lately, and I realised that one of the expansion packs for it focused on Asia entirely (incidentally the other expansion pack for it focused on several Native Americans).

So I guess there might be some hope for non-Euro-centric games.