Medieval II - Just got it and it's ace!

neoboy · 14 Aug 2007 at 18:18

Bah those Sicilians came out of nowhere

philstanbridge · 14 Aug 2007 at 18:31

So how does SS compare to The Long Road? I have only played TLR as some people have said it's a more enjoyable experience and less buggy

neoboy · 14 Aug 2007 at 22:25

Hmmm, having a bit of a ding dong with France at the moment and all of a sudden the Pope says he will excommunicate me if I attack them (I have very high standing with him too, plus the buggers initiated the whole war, I had no interest in them or their lands). Fair enough I thought, but they keep attacking me on my soil and nothing seem to happen to their standing. This a bug or a corrupt Pope?

Kheldar · 15 Aug 2007 at 08:19

gave it a few hours last night after getting it all installed and patched.

as with rome i seem to struggle from the off with money - rather a distinct lack of

trying to build up farm and merchants - damn i hate the cap on being able to recruit merchants ? seems a little odd.

never seemed to have an issue so early in MTW with money if i managed my building armies with building money buildings.

are ships and trade overseas with ships bigger money earners in M2TW ? Do i need to expand my fleet asap and then fund bigger armies and buildings ?

could not even spare the units to go on a crusade, as was taking out some rebels.

not yet decided on TLR or SS as one i believe should be upgraded soon and i see conflicting reports here about the 2 meaning i cannot decide which one to use

philstanbridge · 15 Aug 2007 at 09:42

neoboy said:
Hmmm, having a bit of a ding dong with France at the moment and all of a sudden the Pope says he will excommunicate me if I attack them (I have very high standing with him too, plus the buggers initiated the whole war, I had no interest in them or their lands). Fair enough I thought, but they keep attacking me on my soil and nothing seem to happen to their standing. This a bug or a corrupt Pope?

You'll find that France are in favour with the Pope too - they probably have a reasonably high standing with him, unless of course the Pope is French, then you're shafted

philstanbridge · 15 Aug 2007 at 09:48

Kheldar said:
are ships and trade overseas with ships bigger money earners in M2TW ? Do i need to expand my fleet asap and then fund bigger armies and buildings ?

Ships are purely for military and transportation value at present. It's the Naval bases/Docklands that bring in the trade, and this is what you want to be focussing on. Those along with the farms/roads in the cities, and barracks and armouries in the castles.

When you start a campaign, you should try and concentrate on one settlement and one castle. Build these up as fast as possible, and let the others flounder. This will allow your treasury to increase. You could even sell the other places off if you were desperate for gold, and this would in turn, help you form strong alliances.

Kheldar · 15 Aug 2007 at 10:56

philstanbridge said:
Ships are purely for military and transportation value at present. It's the Naval bases/Docklands that bring in the trade, and this is what you want to be focussing on. Those along with the farms/roads in the cities, and barracks and armouries in the castles.

When you start a campaign, you should try and concentrate on one settlement and one castle. Build these up as fast as possible, and let the others flounder. This will allow your treasury to increase. You could even sell the other places off if you were desperate for gold, and this would in turn, help you form strong alliances.

so its building ports Phil to help trade with the little ships which move about on their own like animals moving along the dirt roads once built?

ahha barracks / armouries bring in money ?

i think i need to better understand the castle / city thing which is a departure from the previous games as i understand it.

i started a campaign as the english - always was a fan of the longbows in MTW, so had 3/4 settlements to start with and trying to build them all up with roads / farms / trade stuff etc

so you are advocating selling a settlement as part of an alliance with a neighbour ?

how do tax levels affect play in M2 ? in the first one very high taxes were never an issue with a reasonable garrison, yet from my little play of rome that never seemed to work ?

oh and i do love some of the new little movies for spies / assassins

the one with a spy hiding in a bush which he then 'moved' inside of near a castle gate was sooo funny. esp when he got himself skewered by a very long spear / halberd weapon

Sinque · 15 Aug 2007 at 15:46

Kheldar said:
so its building ports Phil to help trade with the little ships which move about on their own like animals moving along the dirt roads once built?

ahha barracks / armouries bring in money ?

i think i need to better understand the castle / city thing which is a departure from the previous games as i understand it.

i started a campaign as the english - always was a fan of the longbows in MTW, so had 3/4 settlements to start with and trying to build them all up with roads / farms / trade stuff etc

so you are advocating selling a settlement as part of an alliance with a neighbour ?

how do tax levels affect play in M2 ? in the first one very high taxes were never an issue with a reasonable garrison, yet from my little play of rome that never seemed to work ?

oh and i do love some of the new little movies for spies / assassins the one with a spy hiding in a bush which he then 'moved' inside of near a castle gate was sooo funny. esp when he got himself skewered by a very long spear / halberd weapon

If you look in the building screen, in the bottom left, there is a show settlement details button which you should always have open. When you queue to build a building, e.g. port, if any increase in money/trade will be made by those buildings it will show you by a little grey icon.

And about cities and castles, as English, I would probably just have York and Caen as castles and the rest as villages. Maybe not even York. Castles can only build ranged units etc. but cannot create trade. Cities cannot build ranged units etc. but can create trade, therefore more money. If you have a fortress with all your military buildings within, and you make it into a large town, all your military buildings will be automatically destroyed - so plan carefully.

Tax levels can be changed in the building screen, just above where you click what buildings you want to build. You should keep your happiness above 100% at all times. If you want a city to gain more population fast to get new buildings etc. then you would make the tax low and build population growth buildings to which improves your growth by a few %.

You shouldn't really be forced to sell your settlement to anyone if you manage your army cost to your income. If you're losing money seriously fast without any stopping you've managed something wrong, your cities are under siege or your ports are getting attacked. There is always a reason for your losing money. If it's just because you have 20 units of feudal knights and you only have 4 cities then there is obviously problem. Start dismissing them, or just smash them into your enemy asap.

Army and barracks do not bring in money.

Frosti · 15 Aug 2007 at 16:34

A good way to earn some quick cash is to sack enemy cities, your reputation will go down but then again your cash flow will go up so it's swings and roundabouts

Also you cannot change tax levels in castles.

Sinque · 15 Aug 2007 at 16:44

Frosti said:
A good way to earn some quick cash is to sack enemy cities, your reputation will go down but then again your cash flow will go up so it's swings and roundabouts

Also you cannot change tax levels in castles.

Sack as in take it then just kill the entire population? Therefore leaving you golds up but then you have that village to then rebuild, costing you the money you just took. If it was a rival faction, not the Rebels, maybe if you sacked it then sold it back to that faction for gold. There's a quick profit

Edit: Just been hit by the plague, it's totally destroying me from the inside out

LabR@t · 17 Aug 2007 at 23:00

playing as england have take the whole uk but getting haranged by france now denmark have declared war whats the best way to counter this? I am allied with portugal, ( ask them to attack?)

carlazai · 17 Aug 2007 at 23:55

If you can beat france to one or two kingdoms then that will help. Remember, generally on countries you have borders with will attack you.

Sinque · 18 Aug 2007 at 00:57

LabR@t said:
playing as england have take the whole uk but getting haranged by france now denmark have declared war whats the best way to counter this? I am allied with portugal, ( ask them to attack?)

Smash one or two of Frances towns then offer them a ceasefire. Show them your powah!

And then you can give them their towns back for a lot for a lot of moneys or just pure friendship.

simisker · 18 Aug 2007 at 01:22

Sinque said:
Sack as in take it then just kill the entire population? Therefore leaving you golds up but then you have that village to then rebuild, costing you the money you just took. [...]

I think it's 'sack' as in take the city, sell all the buildings you can for a healthy lump sum, and then bugger off out of there sharpish. That way, you've deprived a rival of a useful city, gained some quick florins, and don't have to deal with any of those unrest/costly buildup issues.

If it fills up with a stack full of Rebel peasants, great - they're not going to expand, and the city's original owners - now weaker, don't forget - will probably throw stupid amounts of resources at trying to get back an empty shell of a city. Do this to a few of your neighbours' adjacent territories, and voila: one handy buffer zone between a richer you and a poorer rival.

Sinque · 18 Aug 2007 at 01:36

simisker said:
I think it's 'sack' as in take the city, sell all the buildings you can for a healthy lump sum, and then bugger off out of there sharpish. That way, you've deprived a rival of a useful city, gained some quick florins, and don't have to deal with any of those unrest/costly buildup issues.

If it fills up with a stack full of Rebel peasants, great - they're not going to expand, and the city's original owners - now weaker, don't forget - will probably throw stupid amounts of resources at trying to get back an empty shell of a city. Do this to a few of your neighbours' adjacent territories, and voila: one handy buffer zone between a richer you and a poorer rival.

Never really thought of that, learn something new everyday. I usually just sell the city back

sniffy · 18 Aug 2007 at 07:46

I finished my campaign with England on vanilla last night. I had around 90 turns left with 500k+ in gold. It was starting to get interesting...the pope called a crusade against one of my settlements. I managed to get my 45th settlement before it kicked off though.

I've installed the stainless steel mod and have started as the Dutch with hard difficulty on both battles and the map. Do you lads think this will provide enough challenge or should I look out for an AI mod?

This campaign should be interesting. I was at war with the roman empire within 2 turns

gord · 18 Aug 2007 at 11:21

Well.. everybody hates me..

Originally i went after the cheese eating surrender monkeys.. but they wernt doing half of those things.. their alliance with Spain caused me much grief when i went and stole Paris, which the Spanish then stole from me, so i began to anihilate the Spanish, which the Portugese didnt like.. and Denmark are being right ******* because they call a ceasefire, wait 5 turns to build up an army, send it over to Nottingham, attack, get beaten and then call a ceasefire, retreat, and do it all over again.

The Pope hates me because the cheese eating surrender monkeys love him. The HRE seem to dislike me. The only people who dont dislike England are the ones that arnt anywhere near me..

I think i will just crush them all!

4T5 · 18 Aug 2007 at 12:19

Total Annihilation is the only way mate. I blag other countries into being my friends just to make time to build up army's to steam them. The Pope (in game) suxs the big one & hates my guts, turn the other cheek my ****.
Paris is mine & i am cool with the Spanish but the Portugeezers are going to get it big style.
Megalomania for the Ultimate Win

tim_enchanter · 18 Aug 2007 at 12:21

You should do like simisker said above and reduce those that are attacking you down to a small number of regions that border yours between you and the next civilisation. If you take the out totally then you'll just have a new bunch of angry neighbours that will start the same mischief.

BURN THEM!!

Sem · 18 Aug 2007 at 15:04

there's always one thing that bothered me about medieval 2

its when your on the battle map
and when you move around the camera the trees start warping and the units start changing etc

it seems like its adjusting the LOD or something

anyone know how i can tweak my game so it always shows the full LOD no matter how far away i move my camera