Who to pick...

[Killahspunge]

I recently got this game, tried the campaign as a few armies, and i think i know how to play fair enough, but i don't know which campaign to stick with.

i want a variety of units, basically so when i go forward in time after all the turns, i get better soldiers rather than the ones i've had since 1080.
and i want a nice variety of gunpower weapons for when they come, (in the 1300's?)

i was wondering maybe brittish? nice plate armoured men and good archers or maybe Denmark, cool vikings and good infantry




also, i was thinking of starting the crusades or tectonic campaign, am i best off getting experienced in the normal campaign first?

[Viking Prince]

Killaspunge -- Welcome to the forum!

I am also a "newbie" and perhaps a more experienced should answer this. For what it is worth:

My buddy and I began together with each reviewing what the other had accomplished and sometimes playing by committee. We began on vh/vh. We both started with Spain. Immediate conflict and aggressive play. Small stack after small stack of Sicilians as soon as a rebel province is taken. France attacks, etc. If you like this great! I did not.

Shortly after starting we found out about patches and mods. I am playing the Gold Edition with both Medieval II 1.0 and Kingdoms DVDs in one box. With the Retrofit Mod I am able to use the Kingdoms .exe code which "rebalances" the units. (changes stats and sizes -- essentially taming down cav and hyper aggressive AI). This may be too tame, but it fits my style better. Much more of an economic game, with the computer players kicking into a more offensive mode as you grow and the rebel provinces decrease (about turn 30, close to the Crusades -- much sooner if you are more aggressive, but aggressive styles will expand faster than without the mod)

I have since played short games with France and Sicily. I am now working on the Russians and Sicily again in long campaigns. My buddy has played long with England, Sicily, and now the Danes.

All are enjoyable and all have differant initial challanges. As the faction grows, i think the problems are a bit more similar (after about 12 settlements), especially the western factions. Russia will be differant when I get to the point that the Mongol Horde crashes into the eastern edge of the board.

Caveat: I have really only the short game format to judge by.

Good luck.

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

maybe you can start a campaign as england, it has many variety of soldiers a novice can pick, I also started many campaigns (didn't finish one though) too and using england is i think the best choice for you especially their longbowmen because of their "fun" and "you can't touch me" feeling when you're using them, good luck in your campaign.

[Sokar Rostau]

I think that England, France and Venice or Milan are the best Factions for a learner.

England has Longbows and some great Heavy Infantry, but it is primarily the power of the bow that is of interest here. All Factions have archers, but England really teaches you how best to use them.

France relies mostly on Heavy Cavalry which teaches you, not surprisingly, about cavalry tactics which can then be carried over to other Factions.

Venice and Milan both have very strong Militia units - their Militia's are the equivalent to many other Factions castle units. Italian Militias are a very good place to learn infantry and combination bow/infantry tactics.

Once you have played with the basics you are then in a much better position to play with things like Javelin units, Horse Archers or the assorted types of infantry and have the experience to put your different units to work.

[Killahspunge]

i was considering the danish due to their nice infantry units and just the fact vikings look cool, might start a brittish and a danish campaign, see how i like them, then move on to the one i prefer.

for danish should i take that big rebel town just below starting position then head for the brittish isles, i think taking england would put me in a good position to invade whoever.

with brittain i wipe out scotland, then move down to france, im trying to ally spain so i can fight my way towards eastern europe.

[Old_Scratch]

Spain has a good variety of units. They start out weak, but as you progress they can field some very powerful armies.

I personally liked the kingdoms campaigns better than the GC though because they are designed around a particular period and conflict. If you want to cover a lot of time periods and area, then you'd like the GC.

[Kennylz]

The Danes sound right for you, just don't take on the ERE until you are ready. I suggest taking the two settlements above you, then go into Britain via war with Scotland first, and then Britain. Take Ireland. You have a consolidated position with many possibilities afterwords. I don't reccomend going East at all until later. You can't easily knock the Russians out easily due to the vast steppes and the spoils aren't worth the effort.

[Killahspunge]

played as the danes for about 50 odd turns, my main mistake with my first few campaigns was vastly expanding, and not helping the nations i already have which lead to debt and riots,

ive made a brittish and a dane campaign both to around 50-60 turns, have the good dane axemen, which are cool. and as brittain got the feudal knights with armoured swordsman, got a strong alliance with france and pretty much wiped out the ERE, going for milan now as they have 0 crosses with the pope

[jman47]

britian allied with france? BLASPHEMY!

lol jk bro welcome to the forums

[Jolle]

I'm playing as England right now. stomping all across europe, sackin and exterminate every settlement i can get my hands on especially those in france... hehe and i'm currently at war with every one including the Mongols

[Sokar Rostau]

Just remember, it might be called Total War but peace is a necessary tactic to prosperity and domination.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Just remember, it might be called Total War but peace is a necessary tactic to prosperity and domination.

No it isn't. If somebody doesn't want to trade with you capture his cities so they will trade with you. I have played as the Turks and was at war with every Christian faction . The only Muslims left were the Moors who were hiding in Timbuktu. Nobody liked me but I was still the mightiest en richest faction in the world.

[Killahspunge]

i was wondering, to get platemail, do you have to wait like you do with gunpowder, or do you get it for updating your castle like you do with armoured swordsmen

[boerekovic]

No it isn't. If somebody doesn't want to trade with you capture his cities so they will trade with you. I have played as the Turks and was at war with every Christian faction . The only Muslims left were the Moors who were hiding in Timbuktu. Nobody liked me but I was still the mightiest en richest faction in the world.

same thing, lol.

[Viking Prince]

I am glad you liked the Danes! I also had problems around 50 or 60 turns as a Newbie. I think the short game gave me some bad habits by looking to finish out the game before everything fell apart.

There are many threads on building your economy up. Look for them. The best simple advice I found was to build all of the cheaper structures first. Not just a level development in each city, but to a degree over all the empire. Focus on building one and only one castle up in the beginning. Two castles built 1/2 way are not as effective. Garrison with free maintainance militia. Convert castles to cities. Demob unused units (especially naval). Use the free maint. units to fight local rebels. Keep only a single battle/seige stack until the economy is much, much larger.

This should get past the 50-60 turn wall.


At some point I would encourage you to give Spain or Portugal a try. The growth is much slower, but you will get a bit of practice with Jinettes. You will also have to learn to fight by flanking and getting into "even" battles or you will simply not be growing. Nearly every battle will be faught on the map and not autoresolved, so the action is still there.

[Killahspunge]

i was gonna save spain for the america campaign, nothing beats blasting the hell out of 100's of unarmoured peasants.

hmm.. Scotland are pretty cool too, they have the heavy armoured nobles, along with the barbarian aspects of the poorer ones.


also, whenabouts does platemail actually hit. i have armoured swordsmen on my english campaign

[King Sama]

Lets go Spain!

I used them for my first campaign, I beat it barely (with about 6 turns to spare), but looking back I could have probably taken 2/3 of the map if I wasnt so bad and made such stupid mistakes, specially with my economy.

They have some of the best gunpowder and ships in the game, pikemen, swordsmen, knights, dismounted knights, javelinmen, pavise crossbowmen, musketeers, conquistadores, jinetes, etc. Hows that for variety?

There units bbecome significantly better late game, and while the early period is rough, after you conquer iberia you can expand in nearly direction, and have the troops and "economy"(if it is correctly managed) to do so.

The variety of troops and the flexibility of expansion allow for a good idea of how the game and different factions/units work, providing experience for subsequent campaigns


And just a tip; I found spain in the americas campaign much different compared to regular Spain campaign, and not just the map