Thinking of reinstalling M2TW but have some questions...

[D3lit3]

Alright well I'm planning on re-installing the game while waiting for ETW, but I'm not sure whether it's too old to be played e.g graphics wise.

Last time I played was in Jan 2008, I started with Russia and got through like 30 turns, then it got boring for some reason I don't remember (the repetitive battles probably).

So, I have a few questions and I'd appreciate if someone could answer them.

1. Wondering which faction to start off with (easiest for a newbie to utilize yet unique from other factions)...should I choose Russia again?

1a. ...Or should I get M2TWK and start with the Jerusalem faction? From what I understand M2TWK is just an expansion which adds more features & factions? Will the whole map and all features be available like in M2TW?

2. Is it true M2TWK removes the ability to become allies/enemies with other factions, because they're already pre-chosen?

3. Any mods you could recommend? Nothing AI-wise though - looking for big mods that re-texture like all factions, add blood, RPG elements, and the ability to BUILD FORTS (preferably not just 1 kind either) anywhere like in Kingdoms.

[Viking Prince]

I would modestly suggest a quick read of My Newbie Guides (they can also be found in the Scriptorium under The Catalogue Pt. 1: The Total War World ):

Strategic Guide for Newbies to Medieval II Total War
Faction Strategy Guide for Newbies to Medieval II Total War: England

Also my recent short campaign guide:

Viking Prince’s Short Campaign Faction Strategy Guide to Medieval II Total War: The Holy Roman Empire

My first choices that I played were Spain, England, Russia. I tried to play all factions with a short campaign before tackling the longer campaigns. This might work for you also.

Regarding mods and features -- if you do not already own Kingdoms, this would be my first suggestion. The mods within it are new skins and you get boiling oil as well as some fort action. The next step for me was the Retrofit Mod which adds in the Kingdoms .exe into the vanilla M2TW as well as some rebalancing of the unit stats.

Good luck and keep us informed.

Regards,

VP

[Sulfurion Blackfyre]

Medieval 2 is old in graphics? jeez you should play Age of Empires 2 or something. Graphics don't make a game, in fact now almost every game gets totally ruined coz the developers insist on super uber woot graphics and the gameplay well..

1 - Maybe you could start with Egypt (they're unique in the fact they are eastern and only more 2 factions are like them) and they are easy because they can get good resources and lots of full stacks without having any financial problems, the only problem would be the mongols and the timurids tough.. or you could play Portugal ^^ once the iberian peninsula is conquered the rest of the game is easy cake, and you are close to the americas and far from the eastern invaders.. plus one of the best late era armies.

1a - I dont have the Kingdoms expansion (im looking everywhere cant find it : /)

2 - Same thing


3 - I play the Stainless Steel mod which is a VERY GOOD improvement over the vanilla, except that the AI might be slightly harder, but that can easily be ignored.

[Conquistatore]

1. Easy and unique? One of the starting factions, probably England is your best bet. They are unrivalled in ranged units and they are somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. Easily defensible position and good financial potential.

1a. You can only play 4 different campaigns in Kingdoms, there is no Kingdoms grand campaign. You basically play blown up parts of the original map except for Aztecs campaign, with only a handful of factions to choose from. All the same features are available aswell as a few new ones.

2. No, you can still become allies or enemies with whoever you wish, some of the campaigns start you off as allies and enemies with other factions but that doesn't mean that can't change.

3. Stainless Steel, Dues Lo Volt and possibly The Sicilian Vespers. For a list of hosted mods for both MTW2 and Kingdoms go here and navigate to the relevant section.

Good luck and enjoy!