What have you learned from M2TW?

[Antissa]

After months of playing M2TW, the game sure has taught me a lot about medieval history *sarcasm*

Did you know back then?:
-That Milan can conquer almost all of Europe using only Crossbow armies
-That you can strap a cannon on the back of an elephant,and firing it won't break its back or terrify it
-Inquistors can choose to burn any and as many members of the medieval royal family as they please
-France is fond of sending peasants to fight armoured english knights and calvary
-That assasins only use poisonous snakes,knives,blow darts,and heavy rocks to kill their victim
-That spies are quite fond of attempting to sneak into a settlement by disgusing as a bush



What have you learned?

[TheOnion]

I learned.....
- The Knights Templar never existed.
- Milan will always stab you in the back
- You will loose 3/4 of your crusading army to desertion even though you are on a boat.
- Florida is west of England
- Merchants clown car into forts to make more money (prelude to the modern stock market.)
- Heretics love Northern Scotland and Western Spain.

[Emperor Leo]

Taking a short journey on a boat will make you into a foul-mouthed, binge drinking homosexual with "trouble at home".

[Seoj]

I learned that

-lances and charging horses stop short if they run into people running away
-choir boys cause priests to be unclean
-Alliances mean almost nothing
-Even the weakest factions will sometimes refuse a generous and merciful ceases fire to continue the war they appear to think they are winning


but for real M2TW really improved my understanding of geography and i guess basic military strategy. I also have been enriched in unusual names for if I'm writing a creative piece.

[Bob The Fearless]

I would say the game has inspired an interest that I never knew that I had.

After buying MTW I started to look up a few facts on the net and the interest has developed from there. I can quite easily spend hours researching stuff that I've thought about from this era.

The funny thing is there are still buildings around today that were built in this period of time and they were built for a reason, and sometimes represent some meaning of power and authority. Today we just see them as oldie stoney buildings and don't really consider there past.

I live in a village, and the old water mill here was mentioned in the Doomsday book (1086) and was kept working until 1942. The Manor House has quite a colourful past and is the source of quite a few old stories.

Who says you learn nothing by playing on computers eh !!!!!

Edit ****** your looking for light hearted comments. Oh !!!!!

[roy34543]

Ive learned that if you put a flaming rock on a wooden catapult, It will never burn, and wooden walls take at least 3 burning rocks to destroy even if theyre just a bunch of stakes.

[Saturn]

I learned that 40 germans with zweihanders can kill half an army. See sig.

[Trajan]

For me, it's not what I learned from the game, which is really nothing, it's what the game has inspired me to learn.

[Antissa]

For me, it's not what I learned from the game, which is really nothing, it's what the game has inspired me to learn.

I agree, same here

[prakimus88]

Florida being directly west of London is also something i learnt .

On a more truthful note, my sense of geography in that area has improved immensely (not being that hemisphere). I planned my trip through europe as invaded with england.

[Trajan]

It was the same with RTW. I had very little interest in Roman/ancient history but after playing the game, I started to have a huge interest in that stuff and began researching all I could from online sites and books. My interest in ancient history is still with me to this very day.

[malcolm mcdowell]

It was the same with RTW. I had very little interest in Roman/ancient history but after playing the game, I started to have a huge interest in that stuff and began researching all I could from online sites and books. My interest in ancient history is still with me to this very day.

you say that as if it was twenty years ago... not about 3

[N3rull]

I've learnt that:
- if you fire an arrow at a cavalry unit, it will mystically evade horses and hit the riders only (horse armour seems to have no effect on the cavalry's total armour)
- some unheard of rules of fair play make a longbowman, who is ordered to "shoot at will", to wait until the very last lazyass in his unit fires his arrow before drawing another one himself (which makes archer units shoot four times slower than in reality)
- A heavy crossbow, which had a pull of up to 300kg, took 5 seconds to reload (which lets a crossbow unit to fire up to 8 times per minute, when in fact they were capable of only up to 3 shots per minute and only under extreme pressure)
- A charging horseman's lance is a thermonuclear gamma-radiation weapon from the future, which is capable of killing everything up to three feet away from it (when in fact it broke after hitting two men).
-- oh, and a man can keep charging even though he is completely stopped, because his friends haven't finished charging yet.
- A man with a spear can kill a 500kg horse charging *directly* at him at a gallop speed (imagine a harley-davidson going 35mph straight at you...)
-- bringing it to full halt instanteously (his spear arm is very strong?)
--- and survive (only babies can't take a dashing half-ton block of mass on their bare chests, bah)
- a shield gives you enormous protection against an enemy archer in front of you, even if you currently have it on your back.
- the most cunning and experienced assassins walk the streets in "hey I'm an assassin"-style outfits, with a dagger in hand preferably. Oh, and a woman's scream effectively scares the out of them, even when their above mentioned dagger is half an inch from their target's throat.
- a 50.000-man army shamefully accepts its defeat and runs for their lives if they fail to find 15 enemy soldiers hiding in a nearby forest before sundown.
- and that CA believes Middle Ages ended in XIIth Century, because Egypt's Jihad *always* captures Constantinople in year 1100ish (if only it isn't me playing the Byzantines), contrary to the common belief that it happened in 1453. And that it was Turks, not Egyptians.

[Antissa]

I've learnt that:
- if you fire an arrow at a cavalry unit, it will mystically evade horses and hit the riders only (horse armour seems to have no effect on the cavalry's total armour)
- some unheard of rules of fair play make a longbowman, who is ordered to "shoot at will", to wait until the very last lazyass in his unit fires his arrow before drawing another one himself (which makes archer units shoot four times slower than in reality)
- A heavy crossbow, which had a pull of up to 300kg, took 5 seconds to reload (which lets a crossbow unit to fire up to 8 times per minute, when in fact they were capable of only up to 3 shots per minute and only under extreme pressure)
- A charging horseman's lance is a thermonuclear gamma-radiation weapon from the future, which is capable of killing everything up to three feet away from it (when in fact it broke after hitting two men).
-- oh, and a man can keep charging even though he is completely stopped, because his friends haven't finished charging yet.
- A man with a spear can kill a 500kg horse charging *directly* at him at a gallop speed (imagine a harley-davidson going 35mph straight at you...)
-- bringing it to full halt instanteously (his spear arm is very strong?)
--- and survive (only babies can't take a dashing half-ton block of mass on their bare chests, bah)
- a shield gives you enormous protection against an enemy archer in front of you, even if you currently have it on your back.
- the most cunning and experienced assassins walk the streets in "hey I'm an assassin"-style outfits, with a dagger in hand preferably. Oh, and a woman's scream effectively scares the out of them, even when their above mentioned dagger is half an inch from their target's throat.
- a 50.000-man army shamefully accepts its defeat and runs for their lives if they fail to find 15 enemy soldiers hiding in a nearby forest before sundown.
- and that CA believes Middle Ages ended in XIIth Century, because Egypt's Jihad *always* captures Constantinople in year 1100ish (if only it isn't me playing the Byzantines), contrary to the common belief that it happened in 1453. And that it was Turks, not Egyptians.

Haha good read, +rep for that

[Archus]

I've learnt that:
- if you fire an arrow at a cavalry unit, it will mystically evade horses and hit the riders only (horse armour seems to have no effect on the cavalry's total armour)
- some unheard of rules of fair play make a longbowman, who is ordered to "shoot at will", to wait until the very last lazyass in his unit fires his arrow before drawing another one himself (which makes archer units shoot four times slower than in reality)
- A heavy crossbow, which had a pull of up to 300kg, took 5 seconds to reload (which lets a crossbow unit to fire up to 8 times per minute, when in fact they were capable of only up to 3 shots per minute and only under extreme pressure)
- A charging horseman's lance is a thermonuclear gamma-radiation weapon from the future, which is capable of killing everything up to three feet away from it (when in fact it broke after hitting two men).
-- oh, and a man can keep charging even though he is completely stopped, because his friends haven't finished charging yet.
- A man with a spear can kill a 500kg horse charging *directly* at him at a gallop speed (imagine a harley-davidson going 35mph straight at you...)
-- bringing it to full halt instanteously (his spear arm is very strong?)
--- and survive (only babies can't take a dashing half-ton block of mass on their bare chests, bah)
- a shield gives you enormous protection against an enemy archer in front of you, even if you currently have it on your back.
- the most cunning and experienced assassins walk the streets in "hey I'm an assassin"-style outfits, with a dagger in hand preferably. Oh, and a woman's scream effectively scares the out of them, even when their above mentioned dagger is half an inch from their target's throat.
- a 50.000-man army shamefully accepts its defeat and runs for their lives if they fail to find 15 enemy soldiers hiding in a nearby forest before sundown.
- and that CA believes Middle Ages ended in XIIth Century, because Egypt's Jihad *always* captures Constantinople in year 1100ish (if only it isn't me playing the Byzantines), contrary to the common belief that it happened in 1453. And that it was Turks, not Egyptians.

+ rep for that.

I've learn that it takes 4 years to get from Nottingham to Caernarvon with a half decent army and the default 2 years : 1 turn ratio.

[gloskris]

i learned that not paying attention to the small factions after 20 turns is a dyer mistake

[Leander]

I learned that very hard armies in real life will allow smaller armies go up a huge hill, pass them, turn around, and charge them from the higher ground and destroy them.

[Exarch]

i learnt:

1) that if u gift the pope 100,000 florins when ur relations are already perfect, he will immediately hate ur guts, and ur diplomatic relations will become 'abysmal' once again.

2) that the whole royal family was gay, or enjoyed the company of hairy, muscular 'women'/foreign fruitcakes.

3) that somehow, egyptian ships can magically evade blockaded harbours.

4) the pope is such a pacifict to the extent that he will excommunicate any1 who defends himself.

[HANDsolo]

- In the middle ages when a person turns 50 they go grey overnight.
- A third of all 16 year olds were at advance stages of balding.
- All royal children looked the same.
- A princess in a marraige alliance will collapse and die when her home country is destroyed 3000 km away. Kinda like Princess Leia when her homeworld blew up.
- Standing stationery while absorbing arrow fire was a common tactic.
- Executing prisoners was bad. Demanding money and then executing prisoners when you don't get it, was ok.

[pwijnands]

I've learnt that armies can run up and down 45 degree angles in the pooring rain and that this kind of terrain was commonly used in the Middle Ages.

I've learnt that chasing routing foot soldiers from horseback is very hard indeed and that cutting those fleeing men down doesn't kill them, but instead makes them prisoners.

I've learnt that besieged armies would always fight to the last man in the town centre. The town centre also made men brave enough to charge the enemy again, even though 90+ % of the rest of the unit had been killed.

I've learnt that fighting in a melee involved shuffling back to make sure only the guys in front would do some fighting.

I've learnt that a spear militia soldier could make a well trained swordsman go into constant defence.

I've learnt that crossbowmen would fire straight into the air to hit someone standing on a wall.