New to total war, need help.

**crackcorna** · April 03, 2012, 11:07 AM

I just recently started playing the total war series. I started out with Rome and it was a lot of fun so I decided I'd get medieval 2, which so far hasn't gone so well. It seems really fun and a lot more fleshed out than Rome was but I'm having a lot of problems on the battle map that I'm wondering if there are any work arounds for.

Pretty much the main problem is just my units running around like headless chickens. I though Romes battle AI wasn't so good but so far this has been horrible. During my last siege I had multiple problems such as:

I had 2 battering rams, I sent them both to opposite sides of the wall and began bashing away. Finally one side got in and all of my enemies troops swarmed as I had hoped. Now I'd use the other hole as a flank but that's when the problem started. Once I broke through it and told my units to go through they wouldn't, no matter what. They just ran all the way around to the other hole and wouldn't stop no matter what I did this was really annoying and on top of that, my general just randomly charged a group for no reason, no fire at will or anything and that was all just one battle.

In another I used a siege tower, this time my units got it to the wall, ran in... and then nothing. They just stayed in it, I couldn't move anyone else up or get them out.

When I tell my units to charge, only the front line goes, everyone else stays behind for whatever reason.

Also, when I push the space bar to show where my units are moving to it flickers on and off and is rather random.

So at this point I'm going to say that I'm running on Windows 7, and the game is patched to 1.3. Is this just the way the game is or am I unlucky? Should I try reinstalling or are these just things I have to learn to deal with? I have noticed a lot of improvements as well, but all these bugs are a bit much for me.

**King William the Conqueror** · April 03, 2012, 11:38 AM

hmm. never experienced that before.

**SturmChurro** · April 03, 2012, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by crackcorna

I just recently started playing the total war series. I started out with Rome and it was a lot of fun so I decided I'd get medieval 2, which so far hasn't gone so well. It seems really fun and a lot more fleshed out than Rome was but I'm having a lot of problems on the battle map that I'm wondering if there are any work arounds for.

Pretty much the main problem is just my units running around like headless chickens. I though Romes battle AI wasn't so good but so far this has been horrible. During my last siege I had multiple problems such as:

I had 2 battering rams, I sent them both to opposite sides of the wall and began bashing away. Finally one side got in and all of my enemies troops swarmed as I had hoped. Now I'd use the other hole as a flank but that's when the problem started. Once I broke through it and told my units to go through they wouldn't, no matter what. They just ran all the way around to the other hole and wouldn't stop no matter what I did this was really annoying and on top of that, my general just randomly charged a group for no reason, no fire at will or anything and that was all just one battle.

In another I used a siege tower, this time my units got it to the wall, ran in... and then nothing. They just stayed in it, I couldn't move anyone else up or get them out.

When I tell my units to charge, only the front line goes, everyone else stays behind for whatever reason.

Also, when I push the space bar to show where my units are moving to it flickers on and off and is rather random.

So at this point I'm going to say that I'm running on Windows 7, and the game is patched to 1.3. Is this just the way the game is or am I unlucky? Should I try reinstalling or are these just things I have to learn to deal with? I have noticed a lot of improvements as well, but all these bugs are a bit much for me.

I have some problems with path finding as well. Sometimes the units will go all the way up a siege tower and down the wall instead of going through the gate or go all the way up the wall and down the siege tower instead of going through the gate.

Micromanagement is required.

**NobleNick** · April 03, 2012, 02:07 PM

OK, by the numbers:

1.) Battering rams ---> after they break through, you need to let them back that ram all the way out of the gateway and stop moving. You need to get the ram and unit totally clear of the gateway (the unit will do this automatically). If you give them new orders before then, results (for me) can be unpredictable. Also, for the first move inside the city, make it a short move throguh the gateway.

2.) General charges without orders ---> Many elite units will do this. That tendency is typically included in the unit description. I don't personally remember a general doing that, but could be.

3.) Siege towers ---> IIRC, screwed up sieging mechanics was a problem in the early M2TW builds (and in RTW). I've personally dealt with this a few times. Thankfully has been seldom.

4.) Only front line of unit charges ---> Yep; a M2TW --NOTORIOUS-- special feature. Happens all the time. The guys playing the first release of the game were screaming about this one. IIRC, the Kingdoms and Americas expansions both make this a less often occurence, but neither completely eliminates it. Maybe a mod is out there that does.

5.) Space bar blinky thingy ---> I don't use that feature hardly ever, and have not seen nor heard of it hampering the games of others.

I hope that helps.

**crackcorna** · April 03, 2012, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by NobleNick

5.) Space bar blinky thingy ---> I don't use that feature hardly ever, and have not seen nor heard of it hampering the games of others.

I hope that helps.

Well does that make it any less of a bug? I personally use it a lot and it's really, really annoying. I'm gonna try running in compatibility mode and see if they helps at all, something tells me it won't though.

Thanks for the rest of your advice, I guess the game was just half assed and I'll have to get used to some things. I don't mind though, it's a lot funner than the same old first person shooters that seem to be the only games these days, even if it's a little buggy.

**NobleNick** · April 04, 2012, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by crackcorna

Well does that make it any less of a bug? ...

No, it can be quite a pain if you use it a lot. I was just saying I don't know enough to help you on that one.

Patching is a very good idea. I would have said something about that; but, honestly, been so long since I patched that I couldnn't remember what version M2TW patches to, versus RTW. Version 1.5 rang a bell, but I was afraid I was thinking RTW and did not want to give you bad gouge.

My advice: Patch to whatever you should patch to, in order to load Kingdoms (tianzong's post, above, says that is 1.5); then load Kingdoms. That should make a lot of things work better. Optional: then get the "Grand Campaign" patch/mod (forget which it is) that makes your vanilla have access to the Kingdoms features.

**crackcorna** · April 04, 2012, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by NobleNick

No, it can be quite a pain if you use it a lot. I was just saying I don't know enough to help you on that one.

Patching is a very good idea. I would have said something about that; but, honestly, been so long since I patched that I couldnn't remember what version M2TW patches to, versus RTW. Version 1.5 rang a bell, but I was afraid I was thinking RTW and did not want to give you bad gouge.

My advice: Patch to whatever you should patch to, in order to load Kingdoms (tianzong's post, above, says that is 1.5); then load Kingdoms. That should make a lot of things work better. Optional: then get the "Grand Campaign" patch/mod (forget which it is) that makes your vanilla have access to the Kingdoms features.

From what I understand 1.3 is the latest M2 patch, and 1.5 is for kingdoms only.. which I don't have.

**crackcorna** · April 05, 2012, 03:07 AM

I guess I'm gonna see about getting kingdoms tomorrow, if that doesn't help things I think I'm gonna have to pass on this one. So far I've spent more time fighting bugs than actual enemies, which sucks because this seems like a great concept.

It'd be cool to see CA pass this game onto a company that actually has some decent quality control and could really make this game shine. It's a shame to see no one decent making games like these, I guess there isn't a big enough market :/

**Sitalkes** · April 03, 2012, 08:26 PM

If you are having trouble with sieges, have a look at my siege and settlement guide https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_JIBYcrqYoOTnBiLVMwN2xScENvb2hFR0hKNDktdw/edit?pli=1 Also don't forget to download the Medievalopedia, you will find it very useful http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=358791

I often have trouble with path finding in sieges especially on walls and with ladders and towers. I'm not sure towers are worth using as they seem to cause the most problems of all, with some troops staying at the bottom and getting separated from the others. Then when they get on the wall they are constantly running or fighting even when they don't need to be, and become exhausted quickly. You do need to watch them closely and tell them to move to a location that is not the troops they are fighting if you want them to go in that direction - often they push the troops they are fighting when you do that and beat the enemy up. When your unit charges, after it hits, keep clicking on it and telling it to charge so that the rest of the unit follows. You may even have to tell it to move behind the target of the charge or charge a unit behind it so it catches the other one on the way through.

I remember when the space bar thing was really useful but I guess that must have been in MTW1. Try clicking a unit then pressing the Shift key instead as that shows a red marker indicating their destination.