Help me get started

[homefry]

I'm totally new to this genre of gaming. I went though the 2 tutorials and read through the manual that came with the book but this gameplay is so deep.

1. Should I always try to build something and recruit people in each of my cities or castles each turn? Or just save money?

2. In the beginning, should I try to fight as many people as possible or focus on building and recruting in my settlements?

3. When I go fight, is it bad to leave a settlement without an army?

4. Will I see an invading army approach my settlement in X number of turns or will they appear after only 1 turn?

5. Should I marry princesses to other factions or marry them to my generals?

[antaeus]

there are many ways to play, but heres my suggestions...

1. Should I always try to build something and recruit people in each of my cities or castles each turn? Or just save money?

only recruit units as you need them.. unless they are free upkeep units in cities. otherwise they will simply be a drain on your economy. i try to keep all my cites constantly building improvements however... with a focus on economic first and military second.

2. In the beginning, should I try to fight as many people as possible or focus on building and recruting in my settlements?

that depends on how adventurous you are. i personally build my economy, however once you get on a roll with taking regions money can quickly add up. if you think you can handle war on multiple fronts by all means do it.. i personally like developing my faction rather than taking the whole map

3. When I go fight, is it bad to leave a settlement without an army?

yes. its an open invitation to who ever wants to take it. also some cities will rebel without at least a small garrison.

4. Will I see an invading army approach my settlement in X number of turns or will they appear after only 1 turn?

you will see them when they come into your city or one of your generals lines of sight. you can extend the line of sight by building forts and watch towers in the blindspots.

or you can press the ` key to bring up the console, and type toggle_fow to reveal the whole map.

5. Should I marry princesses to other factions or marry them to my generals?

depends. i prefer to have my princesses do a little diplomatic work first to up their desirability... then i will marry them to another faction and hopefully make money out of it. however sometimes you get rewards for marrying them within your own faction. its a judgement call.

hope that helps

[homefry]

there are many ways to play, but heres my suggestions...



only recruit units as you need them.. unless they are free upkeep units in cities. otherwise they will simply be a drain on your economy. i try to keep all my cites constantly building improvements however... with a focus on economic first and military second.

What would be free upkeep units? Militia? So regular troops drain money from the settlements?


Can armies survive not being in a settlement? I mean can you have an army just roaming the land tyring to pick a fight?


Is it always better to get a spy to infiltrate a settlement before attacking so you know how many troops to bring?

[antaeus]

cities can have a number of free upkeep units, the number changes depending on city size.. and generally they are the militia units. they cost if they leave the city.

a roaming army without a general may desert if it goes too far from home.. unless your king has high authority rating.. its best not to let your armies go wandering without a general.

spy's are good, but they contribute to a negative rating with your friends and allies. they can aid with sieges. however if you want your faction to maintain a good reputation avoid using them, if you dont care about reputation then use them extensively.

[Ged]

I'd agree with pretty much everything antea said. On the roaming armies thing: unless you use a mod they require no supplies and can just roam around, tbh I've never had an army rebel, but I don't make armies without generals.

[JMonroe]

1) I always try to keep my settlements building something with my main focus being first on basic economics (roads/ports) then barracks and townhalls. Roads and Ports do the most for your income, barracks provide you with better troops and higher public order and townhalls give public order/reduced corruption through law and the higher ones reduce squalor as well.

I don't really make units constantly. I find it best to focus your castles on producing one type of unit and upgrading the facilities for those troops alone. Each castle producing a single type of unit allows you to field higher tech armies faster after you merge them all together. Aside from garrisons I only train troops when I'm putting together an army for something, the rest of the money I spend on upgrading buildings.

2) I personally start each game with a blitz to take what I consider my "Home" territory from the rebels. Say for France I take Bordeux, Dijon, Rennes, and Burges as quickly as possible with the troops you are given at the start, producing only a handful of other forces for garrison duty. During and after this initial phase I work on the economic and technological sides before going to war against an actual faction.

On the other hand, massing your forces from the start and taking down a neighbor off the bat works great too. In fact you can often make enough from sacking enemy cities to support your whole war effort. Minimal garrisons in the rear areas and large armies constantly striking outwards works great if you can keep your expansion rate up. The AI doesn't usually garrison its settlements properly and just can't seem handle a blitz style of play.

It's all a matter of personal preference. Do you prefer longer games more focused on economic/technological advancement and diplomacy or would you rather be constantly fighting. Blitzing is the fastest way to victory (I seem to recall a post by someone who won the game in like 17 or 18 turns playing as the HRE) but it's up to you and your favorite style of play.

3) I strip my garrisons for the first couple turns and replace them with the free militia troops while I expand. After that I tend to mass forces at the borders or wherever I fear an attack while keeping a few smaller armies in the back country for rebel and brigand hunting. Most of the time the forces at the borders can cover several settlements at once (watchtower network) reducing my need for large armies in each city and therefore my upkeep costs.

4) As mentioned before watchtowers on your borders and spies in other factions lands can give you a good heads up of any possible hostile movement.

5) Depends, whichever you prefer. I tend to marry my starting princesses off to my best non-family member general to add them to my family tree so they can start producing children. After that I find that marriage alliances hold pretty well despite the often insane behavior of the AI (attacking you for no logical reason with a tiny army for example). Marriage alliances are really the only ones I have any faith at all in with the current diplomatic code.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

1) I always try to keep my settlements building something with my main focus being first on basic economics (roads/ports) then barracks and townhalls. Roads and Ports do the most for your income, barracks provide you with better troops and higher public order and townhalls give public order/reduced corruption through law and the higher ones reduce squalor as well.

Roads (dirt roads) don't improve trade. I build them to get quicker from one settlement to another. Sea trade is your money maker. If you can build mines right click on the card. If the extra income is 80 (Edessa) then don't build the mine. If you have Stockholm, Vienna or Zagreb then you should build mines.

What is important to build:
Roads - improve the distance your army can march
Land clearance - gives some extra growth and some extra income
Port - improves sea trade if you have (best trade building)
Grain exchange - extra land trade
(small) church/mosque - always build one to stop heretics. A lot of different believers will increase unhappiness.
Town hall - improves public order and decrease corruption.

What to build first depends on the situation. I usually start with roads and farms. After that depending on the situation I build trade buildings and churches. Keep the faces of your population green. Once the public order starts to drop build the town hall (don't do that to late).

Cities should be garrisoned with militia units because they get free upkeep. Keep the ratio Castles to cities 1 to 4.

Have fun

[homefry]

Is it possible to start expanding aggressively and not focus on the diplomats or merchants?

Basically, be the bully of all the factions?

[Farnan]

Is it possible to start expanding aggressively and not focus on the diplomats or merchants?

Basically, be the bully of all the factions?

Yes, but you will probably not be very successful as the other factions will gang up on you.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Yes, but you will probably not be very successful as the other factions will gang up on you.

It depends on the faction you a re playing and on your playing stile. I always play like some loner. I never ask for an alliance and will only give an alliance to factions on the other side of the map. In my current campaign I have no allies, some trade rights and a lot of enemies (including the pope). If you are confronted with many enemies on many fronts, alliances can give you some breeding space. I see them non aggression pacts or as an official prolonged ceasefire. In the end the game is called Total War, so fight it out.

[Fafnir]

1. Should I always try to build something and recruit people in each of my cities or castles each turn? Or just save money?

I know when I first started playing the Total War series (back with Medieval 1 Total War), I wouldn't keep track of my treasury, and I didn't know units had an upkeep cost. ^^;

It doesn't matter if you're constantly expanding your empire, but if you're playing defensively then keep an eye on your army upkeep cost on the treasury screen (the pot of gold near the next turn button).

Oh, and take huge advantage of the no-upkeep militia units in cities. You save a good amount of money by using militia to garrison your cities.

And with number three, if you ever see a settlement without a garrison, besiege it with anything. You'll take it automatically.

[Grand Duke Vytautas]

To help you get started with M2TW, check these 'guides':

Clan Berserk units master tool
M2TW manual online
M2TW The Guild Guides section
All M2TW units all stats
Faust M2TW 1.2 units stat guides
M2TW faq and tips on org
How to manage economy in M2TW
TWC mod workshop guides - esp useful to modders
Roshak's guide - great for newcommers

[Mr Longbowman]

If you feel that you can attack the city then do it and dont care what she says, but you should be aware to attack to powerful factions in the beginning of the game and i think your talking about milan. And milan is known for spamming crossbowmen and giv even experienced players a hell of a time

[NobleNick]

I'm totally new to this genre of gaming. I went though the 2 tutorials and read through the manual that came with the book but this gameplay is so deep.

Just a suggestion: If, after all advice, you find M2TW still too deep, try Rome TW. Most here have played RTW extensively and will agree that it is an awesome game. RTW is deep (and epic!), but not as deep as M2TW.

1. Should I always try to build something and recruit people in each of my cities or castles each turn? Or just save money?

Advice could be different for blitz play. For "normal" play, the key to victory is money (and, for catholic countries, not ticking off the pope). What I do is invest in economic item as much as I can. I am usually very poor in the start of the game, but that changes drastically as my investments pay off.

2. In the beginning, should I try to fight as many people as possible or focus on building and recruting in my settlements?

Avoid conflict with everyone, except quickly grab as many rebel settlements as you can. Snapping up rebel settlements is even more important than economic buildings, but you can typically do both well at the same time.

3. When I go fight, is it bad to leave a settlement without an army?

I assume you mean TOTALLY without and army. Bad. Very much so. A settlement without an army doesn't even try to resist; and the enemy can take it without even waiting a turn to build siege equipment. The AI knows this, so an ungarrisoned settlement is a magnet for a hostile takeovers. Always leave at least one military unit in each city at all times.

4. Will I see an invading army approach my settlement in X number of turns or will they appear after only 1 turn?

You may not see them until they besiege you. The positioning of your assets (including allies) on the world map determines what you will see. the terrain affects how far away you can see things. Some assets (spies and towers) can see much farther than others (priests and merchants). It is a good idea to deploy assets with a thought to keeping possible aggressors (i.e., everybody) under surveillance, to give you several turns to react to the inevitably attack.

You asked about roaming armies. I have never had an army disband on me in RTW nor in my short carreer in M2TW. However, I do not make it a habit of running large armies around without a general. I am much more apt to have 2, 3 or even 4 generals in an army; because these units are not only powerful in and of themselves, they also are valuable in increasing the effectiveness of other units on the field. An army in the countryside costs no more than an army in a city, assuming that the city is adequately garrisoned in both cases.

I'm playing as Venice and there is a nuetral city near my territory. It's within walking distance of my capital and when I tried to wage war, the lady advisor advised not to wage war?

It is not advisable, as a Catholic country, to start a war with another Catholic country, unless you are in very high favor with the Pope AND the coutry you are attacking is in low favor. Otherwise you could have EVERY Catholic country beating on ALL your gates with very high-quality and low-cost units. Check your countries' relative favors in the Pope screen, first.

So in order to win, there are certain guidelines I should follow, right?

Yes: Attack the weak, build economy early, and do not tick off the Pope.

Hope that helps.

[homefry]

I'm just going to jump in and just do it. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

[NobleNick]

I'm just going to jump in and just do it. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

I advise you save the game to a unique game name before the attack, so that if you get excommunicated and/or get a crusade called against you, you can reload an start anew.

[homefry]

I advise you save the game to a unique game name before the attack, so that if you get excommunicated and/or get a crusade called against you, you can reload an start anew.

Yeah, I was going to do that, but then I thought what was the fun in that.

I might as well play god mode.


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I'll just play it through, then halfway realize I did it all wrong and then start from the beginning the right way.

[homefry]

Also, how do you capture prisoners?

[antaeus]

once a unit on the battlefield breaks, if you chase them down every unit you 'kill' after that point is actually captured. you'll see the little cell window on the bottom right of your screen with the number captured.

its good to capture generals... they make you lots of money to ransom

[homefry]

Wow. I just spent a good 4 hours playing and time flew by so fast. There aren't any breaks in the action, so it's so easy to lose track of time.

I still can't ransom off any prisoners. I know I win the battle because a pop-up comes up and asks to continue or stop. I continue and chase down the remaining men that are running away.

Do I need to do anything else?