Nazgûl Killer's M2TW Total Guide

[Fakir]

You can dowload mods to spice the game up, you know.

Yes.

to CA: Shame on you!

[Nazgûl Killer]

Guys, can you offer an idea for a new guide for me to write? (Don't dare say Kingdoms or any sort of Mod guide )

[hospik m]

Well, general economy or game play guide.
Or an extensive combat guide for multiple tactics, maybe even for multi player?

or one for Kingdoms or Third Age?

[Nazgûl Killer]

Well, general economy or game play guide.
Or an extensive combat guide for multiple tactics, maybe even for multi player?

or one for Kingdoms or Third Age?

I'll get to work on the General Economy, Game Play Guide, Extensive Combat Guide (Multiple Tactics)... But no thanks on the other two.
1) I'm not skilled enough as a multiplayer player.
2) HELL no! Too much work!

[hospik m]

Good luck mate!

[Nazgûl Killer]

Economics guide completed.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Added a new section to start working on and changed the name.

[Hermann the Lombard]

NK wrote: "Mines boost your trade by giving you more and more of that resource and allow you to trade it more... Important thing about mines - They usually cost in the 2000s, or even more, so getting a mine to gives you 100 florins a turn for 2000 florins right now is a waste of your money, however, mines that give you 350 per turn for 2000, is money well spent."

Well...the first part of that means that your break-even point will come substantially before the 20th turn in your 100/2000 example by increasing both your internal and external trade. Now that doesn't mean that the mine is the best use of your money at a given point, but your long-term take will be lower if you wait to invest.

p.s. Thanks for this great guide!

p.p.s. Likely I'm blind, but where is the "Getting Ready for War" guide?

[PoleCat]

NazgulKiller - from your Economic Guide:

Traits - Your generals get economy boosting traits or ancillaries either when they are spawned or when they stay long enough in a city, the traits usually say:
"+10% to tax income"
or "+10% to trade"
This means, that the tax income you get per citizen will increase by 10% and (or), that the income you get from each trading resource will also increase by 10%.
There is also the "+1 to farming" trait, which gives you literally +1 to farming, meaning more bonus for citizen reproduction and common goods for trade.

My only suggestion is to include in greater detail how these traits are acquired. And as a caveat add that when a building in any town is built always try to boost taxes to "very high" to get the best traits but only when it has a governor.

Excellent guide. If you can keep 'em coming!

EDIT: Also it might be handy to add that the King's Piousness affects settlement income levels globally. Now I haven't confirmed this to my satisfaction but I do believe that this is the case.

[Nazgûl Killer]

NK wrote: "Mines boost your trade by giving you more and more of that resource and allow you to trade it more... Important thing about mines - They usually cost in the 2000s, or even more, so getting a mine to gives you 100 florins a turn for 2000 florins right now is a waste of your money, however, mines that give you 350 per turn for 2000, is money well spent."

Well...the first part of that means that your break-even point will come substantially before the 20th turn in your 100/2000 example by increasing both your internal and external trade. Now that doesn't mean that the mine is the best use of your money at a given point, but your long-term take will be lower if you wait to invest.

p.s. Thanks for this great guide!

p.p.s. Likely I'm blind, but where is the "Getting Ready for War" guide?

Actually, whilst the mines do boost your trade, they do not boost it significantly enough to cover that 2000 florins in sufficient time.
"Getting Ready for War" guide, to me, seemed like a guide I could not write because I simply could not find anything to write in it, so I neglected the idea.
If you have any suggestions what I should write in it, go ahead and suggest

NazgulKiller - from your Economic Guide:

My only suggestion is to include in greater detail how these traits are acquired. And as a caveat add that when a building in any town is built always try to boost taxes to "very high" to get the best traits but only when it has a governor.

Excellent guide. If you can keep 'em coming!

EDIT: Also it might be handy to add that the King's Piousness affects settlement income levels globally. Now I haven't confirmed this to my satisfaction but I do believe that this is the case.

Well, about the traits, I am not sure how they are acquired, to me it seems terribly random, so I'd rather not touch that subject.
Also, I will not, EVER, say to boost taxes to "Very High" because I don't play that way, I don't exploit the game, also, that boosts squalor significantly, so in my eyes it's a dumb move (No offense mate, it's your call really), no offense meant to your strategy, I will simply not input something like that in one of my guides. Sorry.

About the King Piety, 3 things:
A) I -HIGHLY- doubt it.
B) It doesn't make sense.
C) Until I see hard and conclusive proof, I refuse to add that to my guide.

(Yet again, no offense to you mate, but that suggestion just doesn't seem right to me)

[PoleCat]

Well, about the traits, I am not sure how they are acquired, to me it seems terribly random, so I'd rather not touch that subject.
Also, I will not, EVER, say to boost taxes to "Very High" because I don't play that way, I don't exploit the game, also, that boosts squalor significantly, so in my eyes it's a dumb move (No offense mate, it's your call really), no offense meant to your strategy, I will simply not input something like that in one of my guides. Sorry.

About the King Piety, 3 things:
A) I -HIGHLY- doubt it.
B) It doesn't make sense.
C) Until I see hard and conclusive proof, I refuse to add that to my guide.

(Yet again, no offense to you mate, but that suggestion just doesn't seem right to me)

Sorry about the confusion with "Very High" taxes. Let me explain. To get the best tax traits for your Governors (respectively "Good with taxes", "Thorough taxman" and "Cruelly exacting taxman") you need to boost the taxes of a settlement to "Very High" on the turn in which the building is completed and the satisfaction level of the settlement must be "Disillusioned" (75-80%). All other times I leave the tax rate at minimum for the population boost. Otherwise it's very easy to pick up bad tax traits. I don't really see it as an exploit as much as a good defensive move to keep your governors from becoming fiscal retards. As for squalor well it's going to happen sooner or later is my philosophy....

As for the King's Piety - yeah I want more evidence myself but others have pointed it out to me in the past and I think I do see an effect but I'm not entirely sure. I will experiment more to know for certain.

Oh and no offense taken. These were just suggestions for fine tuning.

EDIT: As for how traits are acquired I found an excellent traits guide on Gamespot by Salisian where he's compiled all of the traits in the vanilla game and explained how to acquire them. There is a lot of info in there but it mostly amounts to always keep your Generals moving and don't stay in cities with Pleasure Palaces.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Sorry about the confusion with "Very High" taxes. Let me explain. To get the best tax traits for your Governors (respectively "Good with taxes", "Thorough taxman" and "Cruelly exacting taxman") you need to boost the taxes of a settlement to "Very High" on the turn in which the building is completed and the satisfaction level of the settlement must be "Disillusioned" (75-80%). All other times I leave the tax rate at minimum for the population boost. Otherwise it's very easy to pick up bad tax traits. I don't really see it as an exploit as much as a good defensive move to keep your governors from becoming fiscal retards. As for squalor well it's going to happen sooner or later is my philosophy....

As for the King's Piety - yeah I want more evidence myself but others have pointed it out to me in the past and I think I do see an effect but I'm not entirely sure. I will experiment more to know for certain.

Oh and no offense taken. These were just suggestions for fine tuning.

EDIT: As for how traits are acquired I found an excellent traits guide on Gamespot by Salisian where he's compiled all of the traits in the vanilla game and explained how to acquire them. There is a lot of info in there but it mostly amounts to always keep your Generals moving and don't stay in cities with Pleasure Palaces.

Well, if you find proof, bring them here.
In addition, I still won't say that, because it goes against my way of playing.
Also, can you supply the link to said guide?

[PoleCat]

Well, if you find proof, bring them here.
In addition, I still won't say that, because it goes against my way of playing.
Also, can you supply the link to said guide?

Happy to! Here's the link: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...war/hints.html It's pretty long and detailed but I can attest that it seems to be accurate although it's impossible to calculate all of the percentages involved. But it has helped me to develop a strategy to avoid most of the bad traits.

As as to proof I assume you mean about King's Piety. If I get anything concrete I'll post it either in this thread or just in general. I'd really like to know for sure myself.

And as for style of play to each his own. Are you calling me a cheater? I sir hereby challenge you to a duel!

EDIT: For the guide look to the bottom of the page I linked to.
And off-topic: I looked in the TOS but didn't see any prohibition on outside links. Hope this is cool.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Happy to! Here's the link: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...war/hints.html It's pretty long and detailed but I can attest that it seems to be accurate although it's impossible to calculate all of the percentages involved. But it has helped me to develop a strategy to avoid most of the bad traits.

As as to proof I assume you mean about King's Piety. If I get anything concrete I'll post it either in this thread or just in general. I'd really like to know for sure myself.

And as for style of play to each his own. Are you calling me a cheater? I sir hereby challenge you to a duel!

EDIT: For the guide look to the bottom of the page I linked to.
And off-topic: I looked in the TOS but didn't see any prohibition on outside links. Hope this is cool.

All I see there is cheats.

[PoleCat]

All I see there is cheats.

Yeah sorry I linked to the page where I found the link to the guide. Here's the link:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/dos...e/931592/50116

[Nazgûl Killer]

That's quite a read. I'll get to it ASAP.

[Silent Assassin]

Keep up the good work Nazgul, you'll be a citizen in no time

[Nazgûl Killer]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Rebel.
By the way, once I finish all the secondary guides I want to, I'll send them over to you so you can put them in your guide also.

[PoleCat]

That's quite a read. I'll get to it ASAP.

Yeah it is a bit hefty. The main points to take away from it are mainly always move your generals except in certain situations and stay away from alcohol. I've used it mainly to learn how to properly train Governors for my cities. By understanding the rather byzantine system that they've created to give traits one can effectively train a governor to be an efficient tax and trade administrator instead of a one dimensional hack-and-slash General.

One can also try to use it to avoid all of the bad traits but it would be too time consuming and a bit boring. A few bad traits can bring character and add challenge to the game.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Yeah... I've read it... I might add stuff from it... Emphasis on might.