Medieval 2 Battle Report & Strat Thread (Super pic hvy)

[Pablo Sanchez]

Don't get me started about Janissary Infantry. They're just fucking crazy. Why the hell don't the stats mean anything? I sent all sorts of different enemy infantry types against them, they all got frakking pasted.

Is this sort of stuff being mentioned on the forums where CA looks?

It is, and from what I read the reason Janissary Infantry rocks the house is because, while the posted stats aren't that great, the stats behind them are much better. Apparently they attack so fast that they hit a couple times for every blow they take, and their weapon is a halberd, so it has reach, bonus against cavalry, and bonus against armor.

I hope they tone it down.

[GuppyShark]

That's to be expected from an unlock faction, though.

No it's not. The majority of the factions in the game are unlock factions- none of them display that level of sameness.

InnocentBystander was talking about Venice and the HRE. Milan is damned samey from what I've seen of them.

[Vympel]

It is, and from what I read the reason Janissary Infantry rocks the house is because, while the posted stats aren't that great, the stats behind them are much better. Apparently they attack so fast that they hit a couple times for every blow they take, and their weapon is a halberd, so it has reach, bonus against cavalry, and bonus against armor.

I hope they tone it down.

How can they attack so fast with a damn halerd? It's huge.

I've come up with some interesting results myself- try Varangian Guard versus Dismounted Gothic Knights. Varangian Guards win every time, though it's not a complete curbstomp.

[Darth Wong]

It's not exactly unprecedented in this series. Remember the superhuman berserkers from RTW/BI? These guys could literally spin around in circles and send a half-dozen men flying through the air.

But anyway, if you look at the old unit data files from RTW (and I assume M2TW's data files are similar, albeit packed up into an archive for some reason), there is plenty of information in there beyond just the values shown on the screen. Some minor tweaking of those values can produce interesting results.

[wautd]

but they've also introduced plenty of bugs, like the ballista towers that fire ordinary arrows,

Weird, I had a siege where they worked just fine. Very fine actually, those babies raped their siege towers. Cant wait to see cannon towers in action

[Darth Wong]

but they've also introduced plenty of bugs, like the ballista towers that fire ordinary arrows,

Weird, I had a siege where they worked just fine. Very fine actually, those babies raped their siege towers. Cant wait to see cannon towers in action

It seems to vary from city to city, perhaps due to the style of city (English, Middle Eastern, etc). And the bugs can work both ways. I had ballista towers at Cordoba, and they fired cannon shot (pretty hard to ignore the booming sound of the cannon fire). Conversely, I had ballista towers at Jerusalem and they fired ordinary arrows. I also had a citadel once where the ballista towers on the outer wall fired ordinary arrows, but the ballista towers on the second wall fired ballista bolts.

Let's just say that the bug is unpredictable.

[wautd]

Anyway, further continuing my England game. All european factions hate my guts but except from sending suicidal puny armies to my border cities, there is not much they can do. I decided to stay pure on the defence so my standings with the Pope can improve (which is working).

Half of Turkey is now 50% or more Catholic thanks to my hordes of priests. I had to stop to conquer the other half from the Turks in the west due to the Mongols in the east. They keep sending full stacks to one of my citadels. Battles take long but things are under control. I simply put the streets full of pikes from my longbowmen and let them run to the inner walls once the game started. This way their rocket launchers are a non issue, their cavalry gets decimated by rushing into the city and their infantry gets continuously peppered by longbow arrow. When their out of ammo, cavalry and infantry mop up the rest while cavalry reinforcements from a nearby castle attacks their artillery and whatever manned siege towers/rams are left from behind.

Man I love longbowmen

[PeZook]

Jubilations erupt throughout the Kingdom! King Konrad the Wrathful, son of Vaclav the Tyrant (jesus, what nice guys rule Poland in my little timeline ) has married a young, pretty wife in the year of our Lord 1133, and already sired their first son! Even though he most likely won't reach adulthood before his father's death, the line of succession is finally clear! The king's cousin will rule the land in the young boy's stead untill he is ready to take over the rule.

Now I only have to figure out what files to manipulate in order to change my faction heir and king in-game, so as to keep the royal line of succession sensible

[Vympel]

1033?

[PeZook]

1033?

Uh, no. It should be 1133. An obvious typo

So, anybody knows if there is some kind of cheat that lets you change your king and/or faction heir? It's a minor thing, really, but the current succession track in my game makes pretty little sense

[wautd]

but they've also introduced plenty of bugs, like the ballista towers that fire ordinary arrows,

Weird, I had a siege where they worked just fine. Very fine actually, those babies raped their siege towers. Cant wait to see cannon towers in action

It seems to vary from city to city, perhaps due to the style of city (English, Middle Eastern, etc). And the bugs can work both ways. I had ballista towers at Cordoba, and they fired cannon shot (pretty hard to ignore the booming sound of the cannon fire). Conversely, I had ballista towers at Jerusalem and they fired ordinary arrows. I also had a citadel once where the ballista towers on the outer wall fired ordinary arrows, but the ballista towers on the second wall fired ballista bolts.

Let's just say that the bug is unpredictable.

Maybe it's only bugged in cities? So far I could only test it in a castle.

edit: For a Super pic heavy tread, there aren't nearly enough pictures

[Vympel]

1033?

Uh, no. It should be 1133. An obvious typo

So, anybody knows if there is some kind of cheat that lets you change your king and/or faction heir? It's a minor thing, really, but the current succession track in my game makes pretty little sense

You can't change your King, but Facion Heir can be changed at will- at the cost of adding a "disinherited" trait to the guy losing the status, which will cost him loyalty (going from Rome anyway).

Just go to the Family Tree screen.

[PeZook]

Just go to the Family Tree screen.

Yeah, I looked there, but there's no "Set faction heir" button like there was in Rome.

[Alferd Packer]

So, is there going to be a M2:TR mod with like, an expanded North America? I really enjoyed R:TR.

[Dartzap]

So, is there going to be a M2:TR mod with like, an expanded North America? I really enjoyed R:TR.

From what I understand, most modders are aiming at removing the Americas from the game.

[Alferd Packer]

So, is there going to be a M2:TR mod with like, an expanded North America? I really enjoyed R:TR.

From what I understand, most modders are aiming at removing the Americas from the game.

Works for me. Where might the map be expanded, then? Down into Africa and further east, perhaps? What would make for the richest historical experience, for lack of better term.

[Dartzap]

Would be nice to have an extended time line(by several hundred years) so I can have the beginning of the Brit Empire. So that would probably mean an expansion of Africa and possibly towards India as well. even without extending the time line, I would imagine that would happen anyway. Possibly more of Russia?

[PeZook]

Oh, on the topic of cavalry charges: I never had a problem with them. I get perfect charges, lances couced and all that, nearly every time. Polish knights slice right through most infantry

Pursuit AI for the cavalry is completely broken, though.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Oh, on the topic of cavalry charges: I never had a problem with them. I get perfect charges, lances couced and all that, nearly every time. Polish knights slice right through most infantry

Pursuit AI for the cavalry is completely broken, though.

Hurrr? Say what? No freakin' way. In my entire France game I have only gotten one solid charge, and it was painstakingly lined up and suffered extra casualties from ranged fire because of it.

[PeZook]

Oh, on the topic of cavalry charges: I never had a problem with them. I get perfect charges, lances couced and all that, nearly every time. Polish knights slice right through most infantry

Pursuit AI for the cavalry is completely broken, though.

Hurrr? Say what? No freakin' way. In my entire France game I have only gotten one solid charge, and it was painstakingly lined up and suffered extra casualties from ranged fire because of it.

I can honestly say that I have no idea what causes this. It is possible that since I've only recently got proper lance-armed cavalry, and I've been using them exclusively on the Russian steppes, that it's simply easier for the dumbass knight AI to do a proper charge without nasty things like "rocks" or "trees" on their way.

Also, when an attacked unit moves, the charge goes to hell. I forgot to mention that "most infantry" doesn't include "missile infatry", since they move and my knights suddendly decided to drop their lances and try to hack their way through with swords

It's not perfect, but for me it seems pretty easy to get a good charge. I typically let the knights form up after moving, make sure they have a relatively straight shot and let them loose.

And let me tell you, a wedge formation charging through a wall breach can fuck up anything short of a shilstrom.

[wautd]

Oh my, a ribault is nice way to greet the enemy when they open the gates

[Thanas]

As for Vardariotai- it thus makes so much sense that you can get them in 1080 without any buildings, doesn't it
Really, shouldn't the Vardariotai and Kataphtrakts be swapped?

They should. The problem with that would be that the Byz would be hilariously overpowered if they do not raise unit prices very, very much. The thing about Byzantium is that the game cannot display the level of detail the medieval world had (such as terrain obstacles) in slowing the Byzantines down.
If you look at their unit rooster, you instantly know they have one of the best armies of their age. Which makes them own everybody if they do not have the terrain/political/financial constraints they had in Real Life. Unfortunately CA did not take the time to implement that into the game.
I'll guess MTR or MA will fix that problem, though.

[PeZook]

Things happen...oh, how many things happen...

In just seven short years, the situation changed from bad to better.
The Pope had a little accident during a public appearance. It is obvious that he was not, in fact, God's chosen servant, otherwise the assassin would have surely missed his crossbow shot. It had to be God himself who guided the bolt from more than 100 yards away.

It just so happened it took place when the College Of Cardinals was stacked with men of the cloth hailing from Poland, so a Polish cardinal was elected and currently rules the Papal States.

Right after the new Pope took his seat in the Eternal City, Denmark decided to try it's luck and besiege Hamburg. Konrad the Wrathful has managed to control his rage and wait. The Pope sent a warning to the Danes, ordering them to cease their hostilities...and they ignored him. They were excommunicated immediately, and the Polish king asked the Pope to comission a crusade against one of their cities. They are a broken power now, besieged on all sides, with all but three cities in Europe gone. Poland is not interested in a futher campaign, as it would overstretch the kingdom.

A campaign against Russia is proceeding, and doing well. Russian resistance is weak and splintered, and cities fall one by one to a mighty, modern army led by a young, chivalrous general. In a few years Russia will be but a shadow of it's former self. Only distances the army needs to cover on the steppes protects them now.

Venice broke the Peace Of God imposed by the former Pope, and were excommunicated. Their armies are large and strong, but they foolishly threw them away against mighty city walls, instead of using them to destroy Polish field armies. Their Doge stayed in a Nuremberg, close to the border, which was besieged immediately upon the Papal edict coming into power. The city fell, though it's defenders fought valiantly and managed to inflict nearly 30% casualties on a modern, fully equipped field army. These casualties will be rebuilt with ease, though, and Venice lost fully one third of their standing armies.

And so the rule of king Konrad the Wrathful is nearing an end. His cousing, prince Piotr the Merciless, will take the throne upon his death. What new challenges await Poland in the years to come? The Venetian campaign is not yet decided, and with the new King away from home, taking care of Poland's Mediterreanean possessions, will domestic troubles plague the mighty kingdom?

Only God Almighty knows the answer. It is the year 1140.

[Vympel]

I've taken back all of Asia Minor from the Turks (around the 1120s or thereabouts)- in a nice twist of historical irony, I destroyed a huge field army of theirs in the same province where the Battle of Manzikert took place

They only have Edessa and Mosul left now.

The Hungarians finally sued for peace in the West (I had held off attacking them and simply repulsed their seiges every few turns, I had no desire to expand further north- I wanted a buffer between me and the Mongols- when they arrive)- leaving me a free-hand to take the fight to Venice, who had been a thorn in my side for decads.

I took Ragusa easily after smashing a field army (and killing their faction leader) outside the castle, then moved straight on and made for Zagreb. I was attacked by a second Venician army when I finished my turn- but the fools attakced me in hilly terrain. Really hilly terrain. I perched my Trebizond Archers, Vardariotai, Byzantine Cavalry and Ballistae and catapults on top of the highest hill and filled the entire huge enemy force with arrows. When they finally made the way up the hill Byzantine Spearmen and Lancers cut the survivors to pieces, and the faction leader and faction heir of Venice were killed. Venice was destroed and Zagreb and Venice fell into the hands of Italian rebels.

I promptly took Zagreb the next turn- I then saw a small Sicilian army (who I think held most of Italy- as had happened in my England game) trying to take Venice- but they weren't big enough for the attacking garrison. The next campaign season, when I arrived near Venice, Sicily was mysteriously somehow destroyed and Bolgona was in rebel hands as well. Curious.

I sacked Venice and got ~22000 florins for it

Elsewhere in the world, Poland has expanded in Russian territory, taking the regions around the Black Sea- they'll get smashed by the Mongols when they arrive- hopefully they won't swing into Asia Minor- but Tbilisi is a castle (my northern defence facing Russia) and I should be able to put up a defence there if I do.

[Vympel]

Anyone else think ballistas rock? I've had them in my armies for most of my current game- I love the accuracy of the flamin projectiles, as well as their sheer destructive power (i.e. tearing through an entire column).

I haven't tested it yet, but I suspect their lethality is much greater than that of the grossly inaccurate cannons in the game, which seem better suited to seige work than bombarding enemy armies. Only problem is the range is so short.

Are they worth keeping around when you have culverins (or cannons)? And why can't a lot of factions get serpentines?