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Thread: Turtling is a must in Medieval 2 vanila

  1. #1

    Default Turtling is a must in Medieval 2 vanila

    Especially if you've been playing this game for so long that it became too easy. It makes the campaign much more interesting and in most instances a bit more challenging imo. Not expanding like crazy, sometimes completely stopping, but trying to optimize the economy/military infrastructures as much as possible at the same time requires a bit more finesse and it ultimately leads to a more interesting game : the IA gets time to grow in power but so are you, meaning that you'll have more interesting battles to play, and with top tier units. It adds a bit more depth to the map campaign, making demography and switching castle to cities or the reverse much more important. It's also a very roleplay friendly way to make godlike generals, developing their traits is much more easier if you have a stable predictable front. It's also fun to boost your reputation and see what you can do with diplomacy even if it's messy (especially on VH). There are others indirect reasons to turtle, like making the hordes much stronger/scary if they knock on your door but by that time you might be strong enough to beat them. Of course i'm not advocating for a game where you sit on your butt and do nothing, the end goal of this is to still win the game, but win it with style. Atm I'm playing as England in the Britannia campaign and i actually managed to make this big red blob interesting thanks to the turtling philosophy.

  2. #2
    Gigantus's Avatar I am not special - I am a limited edition.
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    Default Re: Turtling is a must in Medieval 2 vanila

    Most users tend to have 'house rules' after playing the game several times. Examples:

    1. Do not declare war on other players, slave faction is free hits as you are already (perpetually) at war
    2. Agree (the first two times for each attacker) to peace offers, obviously squeeze for the best deal
    3. Don't use exploits, eg 'agent killer squad' or 'merchant forts'

    The above will automatically result in turtling










  3. #3

    Default Re: Turtling is a must in Medieval 2 vanila

    [QUOTE=Gigantus;15966853]Most users tend to have 'house rules' after playing the game several times. Examples:

    1. Do not declare war on other players, slave faction is free hits as you are already (perpetually) at war
    2. Agree (the first two times for each attacker) to peace offers, obviously squeeze for the best deal
    3. Don't use exploits, eg 'agent killer squad' or 'merchant forts'

    I agree with these with a caveat about agent killing/manhunts. There's a few home rules I use. Roll with losses. Never reload. No more than 5 peasant units in a stack and overall limit of one for each territory. I never start wars (well, almost - I can be opportunistic) always accept peace offers coming with cash (or not) etc. Sadly the diplomacy is limited and really just a foil for tripping up the player. How I wish the Shogun 2 diplomacy system could be grafted into MTW2!

    I find playing on VH lends itself to turtling. If you expand quickly the game starves you of cash and more factions attack you. A recent campaign as France took all the nearby rebel territories in the opening moves. By turn 50 there were 10 factions at war with France, of which for 5 of them France was the only enemy. It was the same for France in MTW1.

    Of course, you can spam the AI with cheap units but that doesn't make a satisfying campaign for me. I use an element of roleplay - trying to behave like a medieval state. I like to build up with a slow steady expansion, incorporating higher level units and keeping allies for as long as possible. This could be impressionistic, but using the Gold edition I could maintain alliances with neighbouring factions till the end of the campaign, mostly by identifying the territories the ally was after and leaving them alone. I went an entire campaign as Sicily allied to the Moors, and let them take Ajaccio, till they ended up taking Florence. By then I had Rome, Venice and beyong .... but I digress into AAR. Returning to the game recently I find it much harder to keep allies, now using the Definitive Edition I downloaded from Steam. Perhaps I'm just rusty and a little greedy.

    As for agent killing I do use it now and again. Mostly I find 3 clerics on the same territory will get a heretic, and I build up my assassins from the start. I develop my merchant team from mid-game onwards for most factions. However, about agent killing - I have seen the AI do it a few times. A couple of times I tried to catch a diplomat and the next turn the relevant faction tried to assassinate a diplomat of mine. I've watched the animations, particularly where the target agent will zip to the other side of a river similar to rebels who do the same when hit from the wrong angle. It sure looks like an exploit but I ended up thinking the developers left it in whether intended or not.

    Basically on VH unless you spam the AI with cheap units you will turtle, or at least slowly expand.
    "War is an extension of diplomacy, but by other means." Karl von Clausewitz

  4. #4

    Default Re: Turtling is a must in Medieval 2 vanila

    Moors are a good faction to turtle with I think. They get Camel Gunners; you don't want to miss them. Legendary, exceptional unit that changes the whole game.

    France gets a lot of good late game units, might want to go a little slower with them too.

    Check the factions roster when deciding. With Italians you probably want to expand early because of your awesome Militia. With Sicily you really really want to get going because your early roster is great and you are poor.

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