Tips and FAQ -- from totalwar.org

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Tips and FAQ for M2TW //by econ21

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It might be a good idea if we compile a list of frequently asked questions and tips. I will try to maintain it, although no promises. I apologise in advance but I am not going to religiously attribute every answer to a specific member, although I will if a particularly memorable substantive post stands out.

Please use this thread to ask or answer any important gameplay questions not answered in the manual; and to post really useful killer tips. To avoid repetition, links to other posts and threads are welcome. No modding questions, though - we have another forum for that.

Note: faction specific advice should be posted in the guides forum:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=185

BATTLE ISSUES

Q: I don't know what the heck I'm doing in regards to what units do what and what the unit stats are also. RTW is easier to understand than this era!

A. What I recommend is pick your faction and start a campaign. Go to the building browser for a settlement and right click on the troop producing buildings. They will list what troops you can get at what level. If you right click on the unit, it will pull up the unit card with a full description and the key stats. That way you can see your entire unit line up and what buildings you need to get them. I copied down the stats for England and posted them in the English guide:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...09&postcount=7

Beyond that, M2TW seems very like RTW. Let me take you throw the English roster.

You have the following types:

Missiles - pretty much the same as in RTW; for England in M2TW, these are a key strength.

Swords - relatively more powerful than RTW, although I guess you could say armoured swordsmen are England's cohorts. Perfect for sieges (attacking or defending). Arguably the toughest units in the game.

Poleaxes - AP heavy infantry without shields; higher attack, lower defence than swords. Good flankers.

Spears - best for receiving a cavalry charge, but otherwise pretty lousy for England.

Cavalry - devastating charge like RTW, but much less robust to counter-attack

Artillery - I haven't played around much with these, but helps reduce losses in sieges: blast towers, units on walls etc before sending in the breaching parties.

Within each category, just shoot for the best in class. This makes billmen pretty redundant, for example, when you have dismounted English knights. Purchase price may be a good summary statistic, as it is supposed to be balanced for MP.

Other factions have more "exotic" (to English eyes) stuff - pikes, halberds, missile cav, skirmishing infantry etc. But most of that was in RTW.

But to be honest, I would not worry about stats. Use the units as they should be used historically. (Then come back here and start grumbling when they don't perform as you expect... )


Q: How should I deploy my troops? Archers at the front, cavalry on the flanks or what?

A: Some suggestions about how to deploy various armies are here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=73103


Q: Can I dismount cavalry?

A: Sadly, no. You can train "dismounted" units - like dismounted Feudal Knights - but not dismount mounted cavalry.


Q: My cavalry attack without being described as "charging". How I get off a good cavalry charge?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daveybaby

In order to get a good charge going:

(1) you need to have a decent sized gap between your cav and your target

(2) Stop your cav to let them form up if need be (i.e. if youve had them running around).

(3) Target your enemy, but WALK DONT RUN. If you run your charge will lose cohesion

(4) Leave em to it. At the correct distance your cav will break into a charge.


If youre defending against elite heavy cav or bodyguards with normal (i.e. non-spear etc) infantry then expect to get slaughtered. This is as it should be.

Use spearmen and ensure theyre in guard mode, in formation, and NOT MOVING.

For further advice on how to get off a good cavalry charge, read Hashashiyyin's tips:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...41&postcount=1


Q: How should I use missile cavalry?

A: Some tips from Doug-Thompson:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...28&postcount=1


SIEGES


Q:

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Black Prince

I laid siege to a citadel, and ordered some siege equipment to be built. after the first turn, i went to assault the castle, and i was told i could not attack as i had no units capable of attacking buildings. i had 4 siege towers.
built a ram, and the next turn went to assault again, and this time i was able to too...

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fridgebadger

I think this was due to Citadels having multiple walls - you can use the siege towers and ladders on the outer walls, but you can't move the towers through the gate and afaik, you can't pick up ladders once you've used them to climb the walls.

With the ram, however, you could take the outer walls however you want then carry the ram through to knock out the 2nd and 3rd gates. Confused me for ages til I worked out what it was talking about...

On another note, other posters have said that once you've taken the outer walls, you can always reach the inner walls from on top of them, negating the need for the siege equipment once the outers have been taken anyway...

Some tips on sieges:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TinCow

Castle Sieges – These are the most impressive things I have ever seen in a game, visually and tactically. The AI properly defends castles and multi-ring castles can be a major pain to take down. Once the AI loses one ring of wall, it will always retreat to the next ring, making you do it all over again. With the 3 ring citadel, this can make for an extremely costly attack. The only citadel I have managed to take by force so far required a full stack with 3 trebuchet units (6 trebuchets) and even then I barely had enough stones to make all the necessary breaches, forcing me to leave most of the towers intact. The days of the baggage train are back… any army that is going to be assaulting a Castle, Fortress, or Citadel absolutely must be carrying siege engines. Towers and ladders work on cities, but the game will not even let you bother trying to take a fortress without some kind of catapult or cannon. You cannot even begin the assault. Oh, and the sight of trebuchets slinging stones at a fortress is possibly the most graphically impressive part of the game IMO....

....As far as I can tell, no siege equipment of any kind can get through a gate. I haven't tried a wall breach, but I assume it's the same. Essentially you need trebuchets or long range gunpowder artillery in order to be able to hit the third wall of a citadel. I found 3 units of trebuchets were just barely enough to breach all 3 walls before running out of ammo. 4-5 would be necessary if you wanted more than a single breach in each wall plus disabled towers. Perhaps gunpowder units are more effective, but I have yet to try them.

Correction by lecnac

Quote:

Originally Posted by lecnac

That is incorrect.

Ladders and rams CAN be carried though gates, even the AI does this! Furthermore Cannons and other ranged siege equipment can pass the gates and / or wall breaches.

Even so it is not necessary to break any wall or gate after having taken the first ring since all rings are interconnected and troops can pass from one outlying ring to the next inner ring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pickled Gecko

You can re-use ladders. You just need to wave your cursor around the bottom of one of the ladders until it turns into a hand cursor; the same one that lets you pick up the ram.

For some reason my screengrab doesn't show my cursor, so I've added some arrows to show you where to put your cursor.

Thanks to Pickled Gecko for this tip and for the first screenshot of this FAQ:




Q: How can I fire diseased sheep?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TB66

Well so far I think only trebuchets can do that.
It is pretty simple, you simply click the special ammo button.
You start with the normal ammo, you click once and you get your exploding rocks and then you click again and you get your diseased cows.

Can point out that the cows uses a seperate ammo then the others.
When you have selected the cows your ammo bar turns green.
And once that's empty you will still have the other ammo.

This causes a big morale effect on the battlefield.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roy1991

Green flashing banners mean that your/the enemies troops are affected by the disease from dead cows launched by trebuchets.

Q: How does unit experience raise combat stats?

A: From inspecting the unit cards in my VH/VH campaign:

experience 1: no effect
experience 2-3: +1 attack, +1 defence
experience 4-6: +2 attack, +2 defence
experience 7+: +3 attack, +3 defence

There may be morale effects, but these are not visible. Experience effects seem somewhat smaller than those in earlier TW games. And unlike RTW, missile attack is not raised by experience.

Curiously, after a crusade, all my units were rewarded with going from zero to one experience and this single point did raise their attack and defence.


Q: When I retrain my a depleted unit, are the replacements of the same experience as the unit?

A: Yes. That quirk of RTW is unchanged (one might imagine replacements have zero experience.)


Q: Can I retrain mercenaries and Crusader units back to full strength?

A: Yes, under some circumstances.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Basileus

You can retrain all mercs as long as its possible to buy the same kind of merc in the region youre in, oh and there needs to be some available otherwise you cant retrain you will need to wait like when training your normal units.

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72686


Q: When do you receive a "man of the hour" promotion?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigTex

To get a man of the hour you need at the minimum a Heroic Victory. Next you also need the generals unit to get around 100-200 kills. Also a trigger in RTW was the captain himself getting at a minimum of 10 kills. Part of the reason why it's hard to get men of the hours when their not mounted.

CAMPAIGN ISSUES

Ships

Q: Can ships block landbridges?

A: Yes:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...18&postcount=1

Q: Does carrying artillery slow down ships?

A: Yes, but there's a workaround:

Quote:

Originally Posted by BiGTex

The movement points of a ship is determined by its passengers. If a ship has none then it has it's regular movement points. Artillery having fewer movement points then infantry make the ships move slower.

There is 1 way around this though. Before, or after you move the ship, go to the page with the ship unit card. Click select the ship('s) unit card, make sure if there's ships its all the ships. Once the card is highlighted the game ignores the fact that there's passengers on board and your given the ships full movement points. During the movement it also keeps up with the fact that the passengers have moved though. So if you use this method you wont be able to unload in the same turn if you use the maximum possible movement points of the ship.

On conquering a settlement:

Q: Should I occupy, sack or exterminate?

A: It depends. Note with sacking, the city is still yours - unlike in BI. It is effectively like partial extermination, so has similar costs and benefits but in more moderate quantities.

The main benefits of sacking and extermination are, first, that they provide good cash injections. And second, they also reduce squalor and unrest, as in RTW. However, squalor and unrest seem less of a problem in M2TW so far.

The costs of sacking and extermination are longer term. You are killing future taxpayers. And you are delaying your settlement reaching the threshhold levels of population required for higher tech buildings. There may also be damage or destruction to some buildings (I need more info on that).

In RTW, there was an argument for not exterminating small settlements as they grow very slowly, whereas extermination could be very helpful in dealing with a huge city which already met the size requirements to build everything. A similar argument probably applies to M2TW.

Note that your choices will affect your general's dread/chivalry, so you may want to roleplay it - there are bonuses to being chivalrous or dreadful, but not to being "balanced". There are also likely to be diplomatic repercussions to your choices. The Pope does not like you sacking Catholic settlements; still less exterminating them.

More discussion here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72034


Q: Is there still a penalty to unrest due to distance from capital?

A: Yes, but it seems to be roughly half as sharp as in RTW and to be less for castles than towns. therother presents some data here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...24&postcount=7


Q: Is squalor still a major constraint in the game?

A: Yes, squalor is still in the game. therother has done research on the penalties are concludes that the penalties have been "reduced markedly" from those in RTW. To get the numbers, read his post:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...67&postcount=9


TRAINING AND RECRUITMENT

Q: How do the "free" militia work?

A: A unit with the word "militia" in its title can be free of upkeep in a settlement that has the buildings required to train that unit. The number of such units that can be supported depends on how upgaded the settlement walls are. 2 at town, 3 at large town, 4 at minor city, 5 at large, and 6 at huge city. Free militia units are immediately visible by their blue, rather than grey, borders on the unit cards.

Q: Why can't England train armoured sergeants? (Or another faction not get a unit in its MP roster)

A: Some MP units are not trainable in SP. This seems to be intentional, perhaps to prompt army diversity between factions. Known cases:

England: armoured sergeants (tip: mercenary spearmen and Crusader sergeants are substitutes)
France: dismounted Franc archers; dismounted chivalric knights
Venice: Dismounted Broken Lances;

Post other units here:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72360


Q: Are farms worth building?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oaty

From my observation all farms increases farm revenuse by 50 florins no matter what the quality of the farmland and what level farm you are building. So the first 2 levels seem well worth the return you get from it after that, you have to factor in wether you want the extra population or not.

More discussion here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72673


Q: What's the point of building markets? (Often no projected income gain shows up in the settlement details).

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quillan

It does seem to vary depending on the size and resources of the province. Markets in Constantinople pay off very well (two silk, one wine, one grain resource). Also, the educational line of buildings require great markets and merchants quarters to build.

More discussion here:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72675


GUILDS

Q: I am offered a guild. Should I automatically accept it?

A: No. It is undocumented but a settlement can only have one guild. This means that you should think carefully when accepting a second guild of the same type in your realm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quillan

You can only have a single guild house in a city, and it has to be at least minor city in size. So if all your cities already have guild houses, you won't ever get offered any. So far, I've accepted two merchants guilds, two assassins, one thieves and one explorers guild. I've got master merchant, assassin and thieves guilds, but I'm not accepting any more duplicate guilds in my other cities. I'm going to hold out for different ones.

For an interesting hard choice about crusading chapters:

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrauGloer

As HRE, I got a Teutonic guild in Frankfurt in about Turn 15. I accepted, of course, not knowing whether you get a offer again if you refuse the first time around. I would have preferred to build the guild in a castle, though (+exp for knights buildings).

Q: What do guilds do?

A: Some effects are documented in the building browers. Some undocumented ones raise the starting stats of the relevant agents (e.g. assassins, spies, merchants). Explorer's guilds are reported to increase trade routes and increase army movement speeds, but more information is needed on these effects.

therother designed this table:

Guild	Effect
Alchemist's Guild	Improves gunpowder recruitment
Assassin's Guild	Improves assassin recruitment and public order
Hashashin's Guild	Improves assassin recruitment and public order
Masons' Guild	Reduces construction costs and improves public order
Merchant's Guild	Improves merchant recruitment and trade income
Theologian's Guild	Improves priest recruitment
Thieves' Guild	Improves spy recruitment
Explorers' Guild	Improves trade and movement
Swordsmith's Guild	Upgrades melee weapons
Horse Breeder's Guild	Improves cavalry unit recruitment
Knights Templar	Recruits Templar Knight units
Hospitaller Knights	Recruits Hospitaller Knight units
Teutonic Knights	Recruits Teutonic Knight units
Knights of Santiago	Recruits Knights of Santiago units
Woodmen's Guild	Improves missile unit recruitment

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quillan

With the assassins guild, the first level gets assassins built in that city the "Trained Killer" trait, +1 to agent's skill. The Master and Headquarters are global effects, they give "Apprentice" and "Journeyman" assassin traits to any assassin trained anywhere in your lands, which are worth +1 and +2 to skill respectively.

Some guilds allow unique units to be recruited by a specific faction (e.g. Sherwood Forestors from the highest Woodmen's Guild). The manual flags these and the building brower gives the details.


Q: Which guilds can be built in castles and which in cities?

A: This information is provided in the in-game building browser - there are tabs for cities and castles. Press one and you can scroll down all the classes of buildings. Greyed out ones cannot be constructed.

IIRC, the woodsman guild (better archers) and the swordsman guild (weapon upgrades) are for castles only. Crusading orders can be built in both castles and cities. Other guilds can only be built in towns.

A very nice tip on guilds:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maestro

In my latest campaign (H/VH England), having read a lot of anecdotal evidence on the forum about guilds and who got what, when and why, I decided to test some theories.

Basically, when your City becomes Level 3, you get offered a guild. This seems to happen every time a city reaches that level. This has been documented before, but I'm pertty suer I know what determines which guild you get - to a great extent.

From turn 1, I specialised my cities. this is something veteran totalwar players have always done cause it's the most efficient way of getting high ranked buildings. But I think it's even more important in M2TW cause it determines your guilds, too. In this campaign i've made sure every priest I've trained has been trained in London, and London got offered a Theologians' Guild. I made sure I trained all my swordsmen in Caen and Caen got offered a Swordsmiths' Guild. I made sure I trained all my spies in York, and York got offered a Theives' Guild. I made sure I trained all my archers at Nottingham, and Nottingham got offered a Woodsmans' Guild. I made sure I trained all of my Merchants at Bruges, and Bruges got offered a Merchants' Guild. I made sure that the place next to Bruges (forget the name) trained all my assasins .... well, you get the picture.

DIPLOMACY

Q: Someone attacked me. Why is my ally not automatically at war with them?

A: Being in an alliance does not mean your ally automatically enters any wars you get in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rpkmann

:From what i've heard the only major benefit of alliances is if you happen to be at war with an enemy, the two armys will fight together.

Q: What does becoming a vassal do?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quillan

I don't know if it's the same as Protectorates in RTW. In RTW, becoming a Protectorate gave alliance and military access to both parties. The client wasn't supposed to be able to break the agreement (though it did happen in the game), and if the client had over 15K denarii in the treasury then they wound up paying tribute to the patron of the relationship.

Tip:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hashashiyyin

Just started over with the turks on VH/VH and found that I can get the AI to pay for alliance and trade rights! byzantine gave me 2200, Hungry 800 and Egypt gave me 2800.

AGENTS:


Princesses:

Q: How do I get princesses?

A: Watch for when they are about to come of age and make sure you turn down marriage proposals for them around that time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quillan

From what I've found over two weeks of solid play, girl children who turn 16 either become Princesses or "noble daughters". She only becomes a princess if her father is the ruler or faction heir, at the time she comes of age. I only had 2 my entire campaign as Byzantium. As Spain, I started with 2, and have gotten 3 more in the 90 turns I've played so far. It's luck mostly, the rulers have to have children early enough in their lives so they're still around when the kids grow up. I had a couple I lost out on because the Emperor died when she was 14.

Q: How do I get a marriage alliance?

A: These are formed when the faction heir gets married. The manual says they are treated with great seriousness.
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72031


Q: How can my princess gain charm?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willknott

Unsuccesful diplomatic attempts usually result in losing charm. Save before attempting to use a princess for diplomatic purposes. Likewise successful diplomatic proposals will increase charm. You can also use the give_trait cheat for princess characters. I'm not sure yet what all the possible princess traits are, but "PrettyWoman" level 1-3 can turn her into a real beauty. Many people don't like to use cheats, but you can at least use this beauty cheat when marrying your heir to a foreign princess (yes, the cheat works on foreign princesses). This way you won't jump through hoops to marry a certain princess who looks good in the picture only to discover after the wedding she's really a wretch which will decrease your likelyhood of producing offspring.

Assassins:

Q: How do I get new assassins to work when they have such low chances to kill anyone?

A: Try - they often survive if they fail. Sabotage builds up their subterfuge and has higher odds than assassination, although if you fail, you may get negative traits (thanks to 46852 for that ). Recruit them in a city with an assassins guild if you have got one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Condormanius

Assassins can take a while to build up, but I have two guys now that are killing family members at 72-93%. Start small, rebels (if you get caught there are no diplomatic repercussions), captains, buildings, and make a lot up assassins some of them will die, but some won't. New young priests can also be good targets.

Some discussion here:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=71999

And a nice post here:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...4&postcount=21

Assassin's subterfuge may not be capped at the 10 that you see visible in the game:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...1&postcount=12

Q: Can assassins kill my own generals?

A: No, but pirates, rebels and enemies can.


Q: I have a mission from a faction heir to kill a faction leader. Can I kill him in battle?

A: No, the mission only succeeds if an assassin kills him. However, killing him in battle will get rid of the mission which might be annoyingly hard (thanks to Chunkynut for that).


Merchants:

Q: How I make money with merchants?

A: Some discussion here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=71833

Note - they have no upkeep. Returns increase with distance from lands; with having a monopoly on resources and with having trade rights with the owner of the land on which the resource is sited:

A nice heads-up:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vlad the Impaler

Around timbouktu in Africa are some very good resources; 2 ivory and 1 gold. i play as the Moors and the region isnt mine yet. the merchant that trade gold make 237 / turn and the two other that trade ivory make aroun 120 /turn almost 500 gold/turn only with merchants until now, almost 40 turns, nobody tried to assasinate or buy them.

And advice on using merchants aggressively:

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigTex

Merchants pay for themselves. But not by standing on a resource. Standing on a resource is only useful to get them up a few levels so they can start eliminating the competition. You can get an easy 1-2k florins from buying out a rival merchant alot of times. You've also denyed the computer the income from him and made them lose the 550 investment.

More here (how to get 20,000 florins a turn):

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...2&postcount=38

And a lot of information, building up to a case for using merchants here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...2&postcount=51

Daveybaby and therother have compiled lists of the resources in each province and the value of resources respectively in this thread:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72609

Timbucktu sounds like a profitable place, at least for the English:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...5&postcount=73


Q: How can I raise my merchants' acumen?

A: A master merchants guild usually allows them to start off with 3-4 acumen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rothe

So far I have found 3 ways to do it:

- Monopoly in a region: Just make sure that one resource type in one region is manned by your merchants only. For English, wine works ok, but you have to use two merchants to tackle the 2 wine resources per region. This seems to get you some positive virtues over time.

- Travel: By traveling a lot and stopping on some foreign resources for a turn on two, I seem to develop the "Knowledge of customs" chain of virtues.

- Acquisitions: Whenever you defeat another factions merchant, you are almost surely going to get more of the finance rating.

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72880


Priests

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freedom Onanist

Pope - Really does help if you can get on his good side. The best way to do this is to consider all the religious buildings and send your priests off to be missionaries. For the English send them to Russia. Preaching in non catholic lands really puts the piety quotients up, which in turn makes your priests eligible for promotion to cardinal and on to pope.

Q: What is the minimum piety is required to be eligible for promotion to Cardinal?

A: About five (refutations welcome). Discussion on College of Cardinals here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1305234


Q: How do I get cardinals?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lars573

Building priests is a good way. I've been putting them in the country side (one per porvince) to see if that builds them up. So far I've (as England) got 7 Cardinals in the colledge plus the Pope is mine. But I'm on medium.

Q: Which cardinals get to be the preferati?

A: The three with the highest piety.


Q:

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobsYourUncle

What's the best/most effective way to use priests to get a favorable college of cardinals? Spam priests and set them off for Muslim/Orthodox lands? Just have the wander around looking for heretics witches?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wonderland

That's exactly right. That's all you can do with them.

More discussion here:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72660


Q: How do I build bishops?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nonopust

to build bishops you need a cathedral or a huge cathedral in that city, and even then i dont know if they build bishops everytime

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob the Insane

Yeah that's right, it is basically a Priest with a Bishop trait and a slightly different model...

Inquisitors:

Q: How do I stop inquisitors frying my generals?

A: I don't know, pray or something!.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkmoor_Dragon

I "cheated" (load/relaod) an Assassin to master +5, with 3 extra entourage and sub rating close to max - took him to kill a low-level Inquistor and the chance to succeed was %12.

Some discussion here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=71801

Trapping them with your units is one ingenious solution:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...5&postcount=52

Otherwise, simply try to avoid them. (In my game, they seem to mill around a specific area and not roam too far a field.)


Miscellaneous Agents:

Q: Can I transfer retinues?

A: It appears for the large part, no. Please posts any ancillaries that can be transferred in this thread:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72028

Those reported transferable so far:

Tutors
Muhammeds "holy mantle" (piety of +2) - this suggests all special items may be transferable.


An florin-saving tip:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biggus Diccus

One hot tip to save loads of money on recruiting of Merchants (or other agents as well) is to check if one of your family members get a discount for recruiting agents. If you are fairly active with spies and assassins it seems that the espionage line trait easily triggers for your faction leader. In addition there is a fairly good chance that the faction leader will aquire the Spymaster retinue. Both of these give a discount on agents recruited, and the discounts stack.

My current faction leader has a Spymaster retinue which give 20% discount, and a Master of espionage virtue (lvl 3 espionage I think) which give 30% discount. In the city where he is the governor I can now recruit merchants for 275 dough, that's half the price

Q: What traits can characters get?

A: Maestro has listed all the traits and what they do here:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...05&postcount=1


SPECIFIC HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF THE CAMPAIGN


The Pope

Q: Can I destroy the Papacy?

A: No, it becomes a horde like in BI and seeks out a new land from other Catholics.


Q: The Pope thinks hell is too good for me. How can win the favour of the vatican?

A: Hard cash can play a role. A donation of 1000 gold for 10 turns can do wonders.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanderpants

I gave them a lump sum of 5,000, an additional 1,000 for trade rights, and built two cathedrals, and occasionally I'll have a priest burnt (once every 8 turns or so) , but they always have low piety. Now I'm all but one cross from the top. Also, I built a major guild of theology, so my priests come out with half full piety. This coupled with my high standing with the Pope, and some timely cardinal deaths, has practically given me control of the college. I've got 5 priests in the college now.
This was on Very hard.

Crusades

The first two questions here are answered in the manual but included for completeness.

Q: How do I start a crusade?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutch_guy

Click on your faction icon, then open the pope Tab. Next to the current Pope's avatar, you'll see a button which is called ''request a crusade''.

However, do note that you need to have good relations with the Pope to have a chance to get the requested crusade.

Q: How long do you have to wait between crusades before the Pope will sanction a new one?

A: The shortest interval reported so far is 15 turns:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72769


Q: How do I join a crusade?

A: Read your manual. You need at least 8 units in an army and then, if you have a crusade mission, right click on the general. There is a "join crusade" button at the bottom which you can press. If that crusading army takes the target city, the crusade will end successfully.


Q: How can I get a crusade across land without being blocked by enemy armies and cities, suffering mass desertion?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TinCow

Whenever you are moving a crusade army, make sure that you do not have movement accelerated (space bar). Then click on your destination and CAREFULLY WATCH the path your army is walking along. The very instant you see any army or settlement along that route, immediately hit backspace. This will stop the army where it is. Then click on your destination again. The game will plot a new path that avoids the obstacle. Rinse, repeat every time you encounter another army or settlement.

Using this method, I was able to get an army from Caen all the way to Antioch without losing anyone to desertion and I got to the city before anyone else. I also highly recommend taking a spy along with the Crusade Army to aid in spotting.

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...4&postcount=10


Q: I suffered desertion sailing a crusade from England to the Holy Land. Why?

A. If it happened while sailing round northern Spain, it may be because technically you are sailing in the opposite direction to the Holy Land. Be careful of Moorish ships causing a log-jam at Gibraltar - that might also delay progress and lead to desertion.

Some have suggested cutting through to southern France or the Balkans, then sailing on from their. You can often hire mercenary fleets to pick you up, but beware pirates and enemy fleets. (Thanks to BKS and Wartz for those ideas.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Basileus

I suggest you don´t add any agents on the crusading army either cause you will lose your extra movement points heh i found that out the hard way.

Q: Can other Catholics attack crusading armies?

A: Yes they can, at the cost of excommunication.


Some good tips on crusades:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kobal2fr

When the Crusade is called, I have my heir (and always him - that way, he'll benefit from the huge stat boost a general gets when he successfully leads a crusade, meaning when his dad dies and he rises to power, he'll boost my economy even more) hire 8 mercenary units, join the crusade, buy some more crusade-only mercs around Venice, hop in boats and move towards Antioch by sea, joining with my by-then very experienced navies on the way. A powerfull 10-12 boats fleet is enough to fend off both pirates and the egyptian navy should they come my way. Reaching Antioch, again I'll buy every crusade-only mercs I find there (I have a soft spot for the Big Towed Cross ;) ), assault the city and take it, usually without much resistance.

Attaching agents to a crusade is not advised, as apparently that removes its move bonus.


Jihads

Q: How do I call a jihad?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Basileus

You use Imans that have more then 4 or maybe its 5 piety, Imans have an icon at the bottom of the screen when you right click their portrait. You can hire some special Jihad units, Ghazis and some other ones which i cannot spell heh.

The target province may need to have a certain % of the population Muslim.


The Mongols and Timurids

Q: When do the Mongols appear?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Subedei

Round 1206 you will get the info, that old Ghengis is summonming his horseys in the steppes & about 10-15 turns later [in my game] he comes knocking on the door round the Caspian Sea, IIRC

.

The actual arrival of the Mongols on the map will be marked by an FMV. This comes quite a few turns after the first in-game info about them. From the screenshot in this post they look mean:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...15&postcount=1


Q: When do the Timurids appear?

A: [QUILLAN]Timurids are late 1300s, historically. I think Timur took over in 1369 or thereabouts, and it was over the next 35-40 years he systematically carved out his territory.[/QUILLAN]


Q: How should you fight Mongols?

A: One tip:

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunkynut

Stay behind your walls and hope they don't have seige engines, if they only have seige equipment then their foot soldiers are poor, only thing thats worked for me so far without having pretty bad casualties .... and that didn't actually really work as they took my 2 middle eastern regions.

Seeking out a river crossing as a chokepoint is worth trying too (MTW vets will remember Kiev).


The Plague

Q: How do I know if one of my general's is infected?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by lezniefek

The plague indicator is still there. If you take a look at a general, look at their unit portrait on the top left-hand corner of the character scroll. There, it should show a little mouse if the plague is with that unit.

America

Q: How do I get to the New World?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TanOrpheus

Sometime towards the end of the campain (turn 180 ish?) Sorry don't know exactly when, you will notice that the minimap in the bottom left of the campain gets an extra 20% of black nothingness added to it. I'm fairly sure there's a message at this time to hint that it's there. When that black area appears you just need to send a boat directly west from Lisbon or directly west from Ireland and you'll find it, eventually.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lalartu

ok the following must be met:

-explorer's guild in any city
-last level navalyard in any city
-an event about craziness of a round world (copernicus thingy)

when you get that, you can send your lvl 4 (long range) ships (caracks?) to the west part of the map, which has now become black (but used to be just empty).
it'll take a little longer than swimming near cost, so it's gonna be 10+ turns

Discussed here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72011


Q: What should I expect when I land in the New World?

A: Some answers - they could be regarded as spoilers - here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72822

SETTINGS

Q: What do the difficulty levels do?

A: Palamedes from CA has reported that the AI is smarter at higher battle difficulties. And that morale and fatigue have stronger affects (although apparently on both the player and the AI). In the manual it states VH as being the most realistic level to fight on. My impression so far is that unit match ups on VH battles are indeed fair as Palamedes reported, with the stats not skewed to the AI.

I suspect VH campaigns make the AI factions - including the Pope - more hostile to the player. They presumably have financial effects too, as in RTW: the AI can afford to hire more troops on harder difficulty levels.

Post observations here:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=71739

Q: What are the unit size settings?

A: For the largest units, 150/112/75/60 compared to Rome's 240/120/60/40


Q: How do I unlock other factions?

A: Either finish a campaign or:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Throumbaris

Open medieval2.preference.cfg and add this:

Code:

[misc]

unlock_campaign = true 

Or you can edit the descr_strat.txt file. Delete lines number 10 and 11, ie:

Code:

end
unlockable

Q: How do I get the game to display years in stead of turns?

A: Delete the line "show_years_as_turns" line in descr_strat.txt.


Q: What's up with the passage of time? Characters don't age properly!

A: It's a temporal paradox. One turn covers roughly two years. But characters age one year every two turns. I recommend not thinking too hard about it.

OK, you're not satisfied? Well, in defence of CA, characters will last as many turns as in RTW, which arguably is long enough to get used to them but not so long they last forever. Two year turns arguably allow technology to develop before the player has completed his victory conditions - in MTW, most players would never get the chance to play with Gothic knights.

You can mod how years relate to turns. But so far, characters will always age at one year per two turns.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lusted

Characters age 1 year every 2 turns, so if you mod it to 2 turns a year, they will age 1 year a year. But the campaign wil last for 900 turns.

To carry out the change Lusted mentions, edit the "timescale 2.0" line in the descr_strat.txt to be "timescale 0.5".

Still not satisfied? I recommend not thinking too hard about it.


Q. How do I edit the descr_strat.txt file?

A. The file is usually located in:

C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

First, make a backup copy of the file, just in case.

Second, change the file so that it is not read-only. Right click on the file, choose properties and untick "read-only".

Then, edit the file using a text editor. Double clicking the file should open it in notepad.

Note: the game only reads the descr_strat.txt at the start of a campaign. So if you mod it, you will need to start a new campaign for the changes to take effect.


Q: How do I get rid of banners?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorn Is

In the medieval2.preference.cfg in the video section there is a line that says
showbanners = 1
turn this to 0

Q: How can I disable in-battle cutscenes?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whacker

Look for the [game] section in your medieval2.preferences.cfg file and change the following:

event_cutscenes = 1

to

event_cutscenes = 0

Q. How do I get rid of the radar map?

A.

Quote:

Originally Posted by D Wilson

You can set it to hide during the battle by pressing esc, finding the UI options, having minimal UI selected and selecting hide (or slide if you want it to appear when you mouse over that area). I play with the radar hidden, the orders bar on slide so it's out of the way most of the time, and the unit cards in view permanantly.

Q. How do I open up the console?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shoraro

On my keyboard (English) it's the '/@ key, next to the semi-colon

Q. How do I remove fog of war:

A. Open up the console and type "toggle_fow"


MISC

Q: Is the Strategy Guide worth getting?

A: The main benefit to me from the RTW Strategy Guide was being able to browse all the units and their stats. However, it seems the stats in the Strategy Guide are wrong, so caveat emptor:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72173

Q: What are the system requirements?

A: Note that you need a DVD drive:

English version of Microsoft?? Windows?? 2000/XP.
Celeron 1.8GHz Pentium 4?? (1500MHz) or equivalent AMD?? processor.
512MB RAM.
8x Speed DVD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate) and latest drivers.
11.0 Gigs of uncompressed free hard disk space.
100% DirectX?? 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card and latest drivers.
100% Windows?? 2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and latest drivers.
DirectX?? 9.0c.
128MB Hardware Accelerated video card with Shader 1 support and the latest drivers.
Must be 100% DirectX?? 9.0c compatible.
Monitor must be able to display 1024x768 resolution or above.


Q: How do you take a screenshot, and what folder does it go to?

A:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quillan

It's the PrintScrn button, and it goes into the Program Files/Sega/Medieval II Total War/tgas folder, if I remember correctly. They always seem to scale down to 1024x768 in size, and are always .tga files, so I wind up having to fire up PhotoShop to convert it into .jpg format.

With RTW, I got into the habit of using FRAPS for screenshots and Irfanview for converting to jpg. Both programs are available to download on the web.

Q: Are there any features from RTW that are lost?

A: To stop people asking how to do stuff that's not in M2TW, note:

You can't change your faction heir.

You can't view your settlement outside of battle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lusted

Unit recruitment doesn't affect settlement populations like in RTW

Towers on walls are not automatically manned: they need a unit near them to fire. Driving away nearby defending units will stop the towers firing.


BUGS:

Q: I found a bug, where do I report it?

A: Org bug list:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=71821

 

-----------------------------------------

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72109

에 있는 글입니다.

 

[당스니]

아마 제작자가 게이머들의 질문에 답하는 형식인것 같은데 이사마를 피하는 방법에는 자신도 잘모르겠고 기도를 열심히 하라는 군요. -.-;;( 패치 나와도 이사마는 약해지지 않을듯) 그리고 5단계이상인 암살자가 레벨 낮은 이사마 잡으면 죽일 확률이 12% 라네요. 신대륙 이벤트는 180턴 정도 지난 상태에서 게이머도시에 explorer guild가 있고 마지막 레벨 의 함선이 생산 가능 그리고 코페르니쿠스 이벤트가 생기면 10턴 정도 걸려서 신대륙 갈수 있답니다. 후계자 지명과 도시보기 옵션 (롬토에 있던) 은 일부러 뺐다고 하네요....

[당스니]

2턴이 게임상 1년이고 장수들은 2턴당 1살씩 먹으므로 실제 4년이 지나야 1살이 먹는듯.... (게임상 장수가 너무 빨리 죽지 않게 하기위해서 인듯 합니다.)

[샬롬]

질문! =ㅁ=;; 그럼.. =ㅁ=;; 저 사다리의 공성시 버그는 어찌된답니까 ㅇㅇ?

[당스니]

위의 사다리 사진은 버그를 설명한것이 아니라 외성에서 사용한 사다리를 내성 공격시 다시 사용할수 있다는 것을 설명한 사진입니다. 자신들의 게임을 선전 하기 위한 것이지 버그를 어떻게 고치겠다는 글은 아닌듯 합니다.

[당스니]

유닛 크기는 라지 까지는 롬토랑 비슷한데 huge 에선 롬토가 240 이었는데 150으로 줄었군요. 아무래도 고사양 땜인듯 합니다. 장군이 페스트에 걸렸을 시에는 초상화 에 작은 쥐 그림이 있게 된답니다. 그리고 신부는 신앙심이 최소 5이상 되어야 주교가 될수 있고 이맘은 신앙심이 최소 5이상 되어야 지하드를 시작할 수있다고 하네요.

[부드러운 설탕]

여기에 다 있는 내용들이네요... ^^;

[당스니]

네 스크롤이 약간 압박이라서 궁금하실것 같은 내용만 요약해 봤어요 ㅋㅋ

[잇힝~~]

제작사가 쓴 내용이 아니라 이 카페처럼 미국 팬싸이트 에서 사람들이 올려놓은 팁을 모아둔것입니다