How To Play as Completely Unplayable Factions.

**Shroomicide** · January 14, 2013, 10:32 AM

I realize there are a great deal of forums and wikis which talk about how to unlock "unplayable" factions, but many of these (Mongols and Timurids in Medieval 2 and factions such as The Baron's Alliance in Kingdoms) absolutely cannot be played normally.

Hopefully the solution has been posted somewhere before, but I couldn't find it off-hand, so here goes.

After editing the files to make all or some factions playable, start a campaign as any completely unplayable faction (These are factions which are not present at the beginning of the campaign). You will notice that the map is blacked out and you can't interact with the interface. In order to reach the time when the given faction appears, you need to end several turns. Save the current game and then load it. When you come back, the End Turn button will work. Press it, wait for it to end (it shouldn't take long since there are no AI units to follow) then save and load again, until the time the given faction shows up. This of course depends on the faction you play.

Yes, it's tedious, but it is also completely worth it. This will allow the Timurids, Mongols, and Aztecs* to be playable in the base game, the English and French in the Americas, the Baron's Alliance in Brittania, the Mongols and Venice in Crusades, and (I believe) the Mongols in Teutonic.

Go have fun with that if you didn't know. If you did, kudos. Try not to get bored ending turns.

*It takes a really long time to get to them, and I don't believe they have boats to cross the sea with.

**Vissewalde rex de Gerzika** · January 14, 2013, 10:41 AM

Interesting. It is also possible to play as them using a hotseat campaign and waiting until the needed turn and then taking control of them.

**Vampiresbane** · January 14, 2013, 11:51 AM

I've always wanted to play as the Baron's Alliance. I may have to give this a shot.

**Lord Jake** · January 14, 2013, 05:08 PM

You can also play one of the mods, such as Custom Campaign Mod 1.02, which is pretty close to vanilla except the cost of troops is less, and you can play as any of the factions.

**Shroomicide** · January 14, 2013, 05:17 PM

Does that automatically move the starting date to the emergence of the faction?

**Lord Jake** · January 14, 2013, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by Shroomicide

Does that automatically move the starting date to the emergence of the faction?

One of the options allows you to start the full campaign as any of the regular factions, or the Papal States, Mongols, or Timurads.

**Shroomicide** · January 14, 2013, 05:59 PM

I see. But even if they are playable, it's necessary to skip several turns in order to play as them.

**Comrade Roboto** · January 15, 2013, 04:02 AM

Originally Posted by Shroomicide

I see. But even if they are playable, it's necessary to skip several turns in order to play as them.

No, I think they are available at the start. Custom Campaign is the best mod for playing as an unplayable faction, and it comes with many other improvements without leaving the vanilla feel of the game.

**eugenioso** · January 15, 2013, 04:31 AM

just so you know, you can do the exact same thing by playing as any faction, waiting until they appear, save and start as them. ive never done it because i have zero interest as playing as a super OP faction of silver chevron armies.

**Veliky Kaiser Theos** · January 15, 2013, 05:47 AM

You might as well learn how to add emergent factions yourself. You've just got to give it an army, put a faction leader in the army and remove the "dead until resurrected" thing from their part of the descr_strat file. I may have missed something, haven't done it in at least two years.

**Shroomicide** · January 15, 2013, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by eugenioso

just so you know, you can do the exact same thing by playing as any faction, waiting until they appear, save and start as them. ive never done it because i have zero interest as playing as a super OP faction of silver chevron armies.

How does that work? I wasn't aware you could switch factions. Depending on the difficulty and who you're playing with, it can be a pretty even battle. Consider the Timurids, who have about (40?) turns to capture most of the whole world with no base economy.

Originally Posted by Veliky Kaiser Theos

You might as well learn how to add emergent factions yourself. You've just got to give it an army, put a faction leader in the army and remove the "dead until resurrected" thing from their part of the descr_strat file. I may have missed something, haven't done it in at least two years.

I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make them emerge faster, but the point is to use the vanilla game. I'm guessing there are mods out there which do the same thing as well. It's just a fun little easter egg or whatnot.

**Kaiser Nonsense** · January 16, 2013, 12:23 PM

How about playing as the Papal States? Is there any mod to play it properly (appoint cardinals, issue catholic orders to the AI factions, excommunicate who you want, etc).

**Aeratus** · January 16, 2013, 12:55 PM

Papal states can be played naturally just by editing that faction listing. You can't appoint cardinals or issue missions to factions, since these things are game mechanics separate from the actual control papal states faction. You can't excommunicate directly, but anyone you go to war with is automatically excommunicated.

I've not heard of anyone making a mod that implements the features you describe as actual usable features.

**Kaiser Nonsense** · January 16, 2013, 02:05 PM

Well then, there should be one!

**Pyres Δt Varanasi** · January 17, 2013, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert

Well then, there should be one!

It's Really Almost Impossible given the that appointing Cardinals & Inquisitors ect ect are game mechanics and hard-coded and most of them can't be modded.