Ever Lost a Campaign?

[Yefo]

While I just started playing Medieval, I have played Rome a long time and have never lost a campaign. Granted, I usually play on VH/M instead of VH/VH because making the computer's units better "just because" has annoyed me in any game I've ever played (I'm looking at you, every sport game ever made on hard mode!).

However, I also realized...

1. I rarely play weak factions
2. I "cheat" with quicksaves more than I'd like to admit. Whether I sim a battle and then realize "oh wow, my computer definitely can't handle that one, they just got stomped, I better fight it manually", or try to assassinate a character repeatedly until it works....

I was just wondering... has anybody lost a campaign (after knowing how to play the game) playing vanilla (or close to vanilla) Medieval 2?

If so, how? What difficult settings were you playing? What faction were you playing as? Do other people "quicksave cheat" like I do?

[Peanut2bigforyou]

I've lost while playing Russia on VH/VH because I was in a war with Poland, Denmark, and England (they just randomly sent navies with huge armies lol). I was doing fine, but then the Mongols invaded and I was quickly defeated. The hard part about VH/VH is that diplomacy is impossible, and it seems like everyone want to wage war on you. But other than being Russia, maybe Scotland, it is extremely difficult to lose a campaign on any difficulty. I'm the type of person that only plays video games on the hardest difficulty possible, and that means I try not to save-cheat (although i do it a lot with large %'s that don't work, and important battles that I messed up on). There are a lot of mods that greatly increase AI difficulty, which I often use. So as long as the Mongols or Timurids don't rush you, there is really no way to lose other than just quitting.

[Sitalkes]

You should play on VH/VH, the battles are much better. The units in VH aren't much better, they just have a slightly better morale and the AI fights better (you will notice that if the AI has a decent cavalry force, it will try to flank you)

[lolIsuck]

Never had any trouble with vanilla but I almost lost my first SS campaign. I haven't played it all the way since I quit at turn 70 or something like that. It was VH/VH with the most agressive SS AI though and I was playing Venice so I'm surrounded by enemies in the middle of Europe. I think I was at war with Genoa, HRE, Papal States, Sicily, Byzantine Empire, Hungary and Egypt with my only ally being France, which at was being raped even harder than I was with crusades called on it.I won loads of battles though, about 60 at the moment and most involving thousands of units. The only regions I have are Venice, Zagreb and Crete and Rhodes, which I took because I was scared I would be destroyed with both Zagreb and Venice being besieged constantly. My other fear was that I would get destroyed because my family members all died, you barely get new family members when you don't expand and that's hard when you're pinned down and going down in red numbers.

[Sar1n]

Lost? Nope. Ragequit campaign quite a few times tho...

[shikaka]

Once or twice. Not 'total annihilation' tho, just the AI reached his short campaign goals faster then me.

[herne_the _hunter]

I find myself role playing a faction more than just the end result of winning over a computer. Most times I win but I'm not convinced by the higher battle settings in M2TW. Was impressed by the differance Darthmod made to the battles even on medium. So give that ago perhaps? Campaign wise I tend to prefer medium or hard playing the short campaign but trying to do it in the longest amount turns as possible. Gives the chance to play with advanced units (yourself and the opposition) and of course diplomacy and economic warfare. Have you tried giving yourself some ground rules? Just want to add try not using quick saves or using reloads... otherwise the game gets boring. Just roll with the result and then the game should get a lot more interesting each time you play.

[General Maximus]

Yes, I lost twice.

Once as France, when England suddenly landed on the shore of Normandy and took the settlement, while my last remaining settlement, Paris was under siege. I lost that siege battle and thus lost the game. I was sure of surviving if England had not suddenly attacked me and didn't take my second settlement.

Second one was when playing as the Byzantines. I made a large empire, but then the Mongols came and ravaged me. After centuries of being attacked and counter-attacking, I was forced to make a last stand at the walls of Constantinople. They (Timurids) had cannons, so they breached the wall this time and killed my army to the last man using their never-ending reinforcements. Seems somewhat like the real life historical end of the Romans...

[CK23]

First ever campaign on Medieval II. I was playing as Venice, on H/M. Apparently the Byzantines decided that it wanted to conquer Italy, and I was not part of the expansion plan.

[Yefo]

Interesting stories! I might have to give "no quicksaves" a shot in one campaign...

Also, I'm noticing one thing that makes this game harder than Rome is that the AI seems to be super agressive and attack by ship much more frequently, especially on VH. I'm playing as Portugal right now... one turn no enemies will be near, next turn they sail in from fog of war on a ship and lay siege to my city! Worst of all, it's almost always a Christian faction...

20 Turns in and I'm at war with France, Scotland, England, Milan, Sicily, and the Moors. The only one of those factions I attacked is the Moors. If my Spanish allies suddenly decide they're done with this whole "not attacking me" thing, I suppose there's a possibility I could lose... although France is convinced I'm interested in becoming their vassal, so I could always try that if I'm about to be defeated.

[Doge Domenico]

Once as Venice in SS, 3 Byzantine body guards leading 5 ing armies to Venice. In SS, the early Byzantine bodyguards have like ing 4 ing hit points.

[Duncan III]

It's much more fun if you don't savecheat, as herne_the_hunter said just roll with it and deal with the situation. Try sending a diplomat out and make peace with some of your enemies- and don't become a vassal, that is very shamefu remember that it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.l

[In3x]

I have never lost vanilla. I have been in a position where I knew I was going to lose when playing IB2: Britannae, un patched, that mod is crazy hard. The second hardest mod I have played is Call of Warhammer as one of the northern non chaos factions.

I played IB2:Britannae as the Picts, all your settlements start off shrinking in population, you have no money and the AI factions automatically spawn 2-3 doomstacks on turn 1.

[lgoodin101]

I'm curious to know what actually happens after all your settlements get occupied/ family members die?? is there like a cut-scene

[MarioFanaticXV]

I'm curious to know what actually happens after all your settlements get occupied/ family members die?? is there like a cut-scene

Looking through the game files, I can see that all the factions that have unique win videos also have unique loss videos.

[General Maximus]

I'm curious to know what actually happens after all your settlements get occupied/ family members die?? is there like a cut-scene

If your every family member dies, your settlements (and sometimes unrelated generals) become rebels, and you immediately get an ending cutscene. If your settlements are captured, nothing happens other than your generals and family members turn into rebels, and you again get that ending cutscene. And only thing you can do is to return to the main menu afterwards.

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

I only play at easy or medium campaign level because diplomacy is not realistic at harder levels.

Savegames are sometimes needed because you may click on the wrong thing and move your general let's say without the army or attack the wrong army if two are close together or you may forget to deploy one of the units before battle start. Sometimes you can save that unit but maybe sometimes it is a unit that is not easy to save (e.g. artillery). Or worse, you click accidentally twice on the deploy button and the battle starts before you have deployed any of your army.

I don't know how people deal with unexpected modding in different mods though (if not using savegames). You cannot exactly read a manual before trying out a new mod. You don't know whether settlements rebel and if it is worth your while sending spies into settlements, if rams burn when hit by flaming arrows, etc.

[Highlander of Scotland]

never but I have quit games because it gets tedious especially once when the mongols ran away from me after one garrison of a stack of afghan javelinmen devistated two armies they just ran around the black sea and I was like wtf so I was in the negative because rather than those mongols killing off my troops I had about 5 stacks waiting around antioch and various garrisoned settlements

[Vipman]

Well mongols don't always go for Antioch. Other horde targets are Constantinople and Kiev. Last one must be the target in this case.

[Highlander of Scotland]

I knew about kiev but they spawned on the southern side of the black sea sacked one settlement then went to the other side of the black sea. At first I thought they were attacking the last turkish settlement