Medieval 2 Total War: Federations

[Matz]

Hey everyone,

I was daydreaming around and I got the following idea:

I'm a player who likes variety in gameplay, clear differences in tactics and units, so the player is forced to use certain sorts of strategies. This I find lacking in Medieval 2, simply because that was the way it used to be! Apparently it made most sense to just balance your armies and specialise only a relatively small amount.

For example: the HRE gets badass two-handed swordsmen, and France gets Lancers, Venice gets Heavy Infantry, Scotland gets the Highlanders, England gets the Longbowmen and so on. That's about all the real variation (outside skins naturally) you're going to get.

What I was thinking, is to (COMPLETELY AHISTORICALLY!!) form the factions into Federations, and to merge some elements of their gameplay and units! This would mean far less factions on the field (providing the whole of a faction is absorbed into a federation), but provides more options for specialisations.

These were the factions I dreamed up:

The Coalition:
- England, Scotland, France, HRE
- super archers + artillery (stakes) and pikemen
- poor melee, very static gameplay with a weakness to heavy infantry

The Trader's Union:
- Venice, Milan (occupies most islands)
- great militia units (less need for castles), superior fleet & economy
- lacks professional units, relies on mercenaries early-game

The Papal Trust:
- Papal States, Sicily, (maybe) Spain & Portugal
- solid & balanced troops, religious units (holy or sanguinary), crusader units
- lacks heavy hitters

The Dune Kingdoms:
- Moors, Egypt, Turks
- horde units, fast, great (missile) cavalry, great fleet
- weakness to ranged units

The Arctic Bond:
- Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Novgorod
- terrifying units, axes, devastating hitters, good missile cavalry
- poor economy, small units, poor ranged

and I also imagined a new faction, which would be built up of rebels who amassed east of the city of Novgorod:

The Legion:
- New Faction, pagan, strong military code (The Code Of The IronHide )
- extreme on infantry, IronHide units are massively tough & strong, unrivalled infantry makes them hard to stop
- poor on other fields, slow units mostly, weakness to cavalry due to lack of pikes & spears

Not planning to do anything with these ramblings for a while, just thought I'd spew them out here, so to get them off my chest.

Matz

PS: the only faction not edited would be the Byzantine Empire.
PPS: it could be a seperate campaign for each Federation, or a grand campaign with all in.

[kelvintyk]

Wow, seems promising enough.