My first ever campaign in a Total War game
So here is the story of how I discovered the Total War series. About a year ago I was with at a thrift store with my father. He was browsing through clothes or something and I decided just for the heck of it I was gonna take a look at the small number of computer games in the store. I found a copy of Half Life for a buck and a copy of Doom 3 for a buck. I picked both of these up and then found another game, Medieval 2 Total War. I looked at the back of the box and it looked like a mildly interesting strategy game. I heard of these type of games but I had never really bothered to check them out. I figured for one dollar I may as well give it a shot. I got home, loaded it onto my computer and then an adventure began.
I picked Venice because I wanted to create a new Roman Empire. I didn't really understand the rules of the game and I impatiently ignored all the tutorial stuff and the helpful advice that your assistant gives you. Instead I blindly started attacking other factions, beginning a war against the Holy Roman Empire immediately for the sake of liberating the Italian peninsula. Upon seizing control of the Holy Roman Empire's land in Italy they sued for peace and I then started mercilessly attacking all other nations on the Italian peninsula, including the Papal States. I played for a good 24 hours straight before finally realizing that I hadn't slept or eaten. I continued my psychotic rampage because I had not yet discovered the diplomacy part of the game. Eventually it got to the point where basically every surrounding nation was at war with me and essentially all I was doing was defending my own territory. I then decided to be even more suicidal despite the fact that I was already at war with all my neighbors and launch a glorious invasion of Egypt by sea. I crushed the Egyptians and my brave faction leader marched triumphantly through the streets of Antioch, the last Egyptian stronghold. My army was exhausted but I had won. Then one turn later something happened...the Mongols? whaaaaaaaa???? The Mongols attacked Antioch with 8 armies and although I was able to defeat 3 of their armies with my 2, they eventually overwhelmed me. They advanced rapidly, seizing control of the entire Middle East.
At this point I was faced with a decision, either send my armies in the Italian peninsula to reinforce my position in Egypt or use those armies to crush my European rivals. I decided to tear the Holy Roman Empire, Denmark and Hungary (at the time my three biggest rivals) to shreds instead. I was able to send enough reinforcements to hold Alexandria but all my other possessions in the Middle East were lost. At the same time I effectively crippled the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary and was able to set Denmark back enough to retain my position as biggest, most advanced and strongest faction. Then Milan decided to attack me, after I had taken all of their possessions in Italy they had expanded into France and destroyed the French faction. Milan attacked me to regain their homeland and at the same time the Pope called a crusade against me to which Spain responded shortly after which the Byzantines attacked me. I realized that my position was essentially untenable (I still had not discovered diplomacy yet)and so I decided to just throw everything I had at the Byzantines who were already getting owned by the Mongols. I shredded their Empire in Eastern Europe and fought with the Mongols over Constantinople. All the while Milan continued wrecking my cities in Western Italy. I was able to keep a supply of fresh troops flowing into Western Italy to keep Milan at bay but then the Spanish landed in Rome. At this point I just decided "******* it" and I used cheats to torch all of western and eastern Europe.
During all this my father would occasionally peek at what I was doing and he seemed absolutely entranced by it. My father is a 65 year old man who grew up playing Axis and Allies and other such war games so when he saw Medieval 2 he completely flipped out. It amazed him so much that he went out and bought Rome Total War, Empire Total War, Napoleon Total War and Shogun 2 Total War. He's been playing Rome Total War ever since. (he tried to play Empire and can't figure it out, despite the fact that its supposed to be simpler than the earlier games lol) He gave me all the other games which began a love affair that lasts to this very day. Anyway, for kicks I loaded up my first Medieval 2 campaign today and realized that it is completely broken. I used cheats to raise massive armies without building any kind of sustainable tax infrastructure so without cheats I'm waaaaaaay in debt and I am literally at war with every faction in the game AND I have huge public order problems everywhere AND I have no diplomats because at the time I didn't even know that they existed.
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Re: My first ever campaign in a Total War game
Oh, and the multiplayer too. Do you and your dad play battles and/or campaigns against each other?
Originally Posted by StealthFox
