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Religion in Medieval 2
By Dan Toose
Game Designer, Creative Assembly Australia



Medieval 2: Total War is set in an era where faith ruled the lives of men, regardless of whether they were pauper or prince. For this reason, our team here at Creative Assembly has put considerable effort into creating the most robust religion system of any Total War game to date.

At no point did we want to make the game about religion; we make strategy games. However, a strategy game in a medieval setting that doesn't consider matters of faith would be taking away some of the greatest challenges rulers of the time faced: how to be seen as an angel as you conquer like a devil. What follows is a summary, over two parts, of how we went about working that into Medieval 2.

Even though there are many more faiths and denominations that could be included in Medieval 2, we decided on five: Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Islam, paganism, and heresy. The two Christian faiths and Islam represent the primary religions of the game, with paganism now entering its dying throes in the Old World and heresy being not so much a religion itself but a more general opposition to organized religion. For that reason, heresy is the enemy of all other religions in Medieval 2. Religious harmony leads to stability, whereas religious tension leads to unrest and conflict.

As for why we left out certain faiths, it simply came down to the faiths of the factions in our game. Religion can only be spread by a faction that actually builds religious structures and trains priests, so we didn't want to include other faiths only to have them wiped out during the course of our game.

Because of the importance of religion in the medieval period, we wanted to ensure that religion had a significant role to play in Medieval 2 without creating something complicated that the player had to micromanage. The key effect of religion is keeping your people happy, or more to the point, preventing them from becoming unhappy by not providing an environment where their chosen faith is dominant. Each region on the map has its population split up between the five religions. There are other ways religion affects Medieval 2 as well, such as crusades and jihads, dealing with the pope, and diplomatic effects when you find yourself at odds with the pope.

To ensure your religion is dominant in your lands, you will need to support the faith by financing the construction of churches or mosques. Once you build a religious structure, it will convert a percentage of the people in that region over to your faith. The more expensive and grand the building you invest in, the more absolute your faith's dominance will be. This means that once you spend the money on ensuring your faith is dominant in your own lands, the player can essentially let things run their course, unless heretics or religious figures of other faiths enter the lands, which brings us to the role of priests and imams in Medieval 2.

Building religious structures is useful for keeping your people happy, but sometimes you might conquer a region only to face immediate problems because the local populace does not share your faith. This is where creating a mobile conversion force is useful, and in Medieval 2, that means recruiting priests (or imams for Islamic factions). Priests are considered agents, like spies, assassins, and diplomats. Their religious conviction and power is represented by their piety attribute, and it not only affects how effectively they preach, but also how well they combat heresy. In regions where heresy is left unchecked, heretics start stalking the map, and aside from an assassin's blade, being put to trial for heresy by a priest is the only way the player can actively attempt to dispatch these extremely disruptive figures.

While religion has the same basic effects for all faiths in Medieval 2, those of the Catholic faith also have to deal with the authority and will of the pope. What the pope said was considered mandate, and that was something that was often a problem for the kings of Catholic factions, especially if it involved not attacking your annoying neighbor who also happened to be Catholic.

So within Medieval 2, the pope is an extra authority figure to deal with, for those who normally answer to no other authority. If you play as a Catholic faction, you will receive missions from the pope, much in the same way that you received missions from the senate in Rome: Total War. However, the pope has far more personality than the senate ever did. That is because each pope develops individual traits as he rises through the ranks of the Catholic Church.

That concludes the first part of this diary on religion in Medieval 2. In the second part, I'll reveal details of how you manage your relationship with the pope when playing as a Catholic faction, how to avoid the threat of excommunication, the terror of the Inquisition, and even how you can get your own pope elected by rigging papal elections. I'll also look in detail at the risks and rewards of crusades and jihads.

Then can you update the title?

Wielding the mighty “berdiche” these Axe-men strike fear into the hearts of their enemies just before striking into the hearts of their enemies! Berdiche Axe-men receive plenty of training to wield their fearsome two handed axes and are heavily armoured wearing anything from light mail up to heavy brigandine. Many Russian generals use these men as shock troops to soften up enemy formations.

Ace Pace wrote:

Religion in Medieval 2
By Dan Toose
Game Designer, Creative Assembly Australia



Medieval 2: Total War is set in an era where faith ruled the lives of men, regardless of whether they were pauper or prince. For this reason, our team here at Creative Assembly has put considerable effort into creating the most robust religion system of any Total War game to date.
<snip>

So within Medieval 2, the pope is an extra authority figure to deal with, for those who normally answer to no other authority. If you play as a Catholic faction, you will receive missions from the pope, much in the same way that you received missions from the senate in Rome: Total War. However, the pope has far more personality than the senate ever did. That is because each pope develops individual traits as he rises through the ranks of the Catholic Church.

That concludes the first part of this diary on religion in Medieval 2. In the second part, I'll reveal details of how you manage your relationship with the pope when playing as a Catholic faction, how to avoid the threat of excommunication, the terror of the Inquisition, and even how you can get your own pope elected by rigging papal elections. I'll also look in detail at the risks and rewards of crusades and jihads.

Vympel wrote:I never really knew what Russian troops looked like in Medieval times, but I like it.

The Holy Roman Empire is bumped off the No. 2 spot in my faction play list. Now it goes:

- Byzantine Greeks;
- Russians;
- Holy Roman Empire;
- England; and
- France.

This week was demo time, you guys and gals wanted it so you are going to get it real soon. It’s a pre-beta build but still has enough sugar to give you enough of a taste of what the final product will be. There was many a long night and weekend working in the studio to have it ready, not to mention the local Chinese takeaway and pizza shop cooking up a storm to maintain our ever increasing waist-lines and maintain nourishment to those muscular little fingers and bulging eyeballs. This game build hasn’t been tweaked to play just right yet, so no need to spam the forums with “Guns, get it together”, “Pikemen, what the!”, “Missiles, golly gosh!”, “Cavalry, it’s gonna be spam time all over again.” That’s all being done or has been done as I type this message. Check the infantry blobbing improvement and general slow down in combat speed, that’s just a taste of what’s coming.

Thanas wrote:according to some pics you won't be able to play with the byzs from the start - you have to win with one of five catholic factions. This sucks bigtime.

Link: http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/C ... mpaign.jpg

Lonestar wrote:That really looks more like a R"TW mod than a new game.

Thanas wrote:according to some pics you won't be able to play with the byzs from the start - you have to win with one of five catholic factions. This sucks bigtime.

Link: http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/C ... mpaign.jpg

Well trained and well disciplined, Byzantine Lancers are well armoured and equipped with a lance and a sword. Common throughout the Byzantine Empire, their training and discipline allows makes them very useful on the battlefield, whether mounted or on foot.

Latinkon is the collective term in Latin [Greek, actually] for western European troops, mostly mercenaries, in the Byzantine army. Despite fluctuating numbers, there are enough of them to warrant the position of Megas Konostabllos being created to oversee them. Wearing heavy armour these experienced and well trained fighters are armed with lances and swords and are effective both mounted or on foot.

Byzantine guard troops are financed by the Emperor himself and unlike many Byzantine units consist purely of Greek troops. Skilled in the use of the composite bow, these troops issue a challenge to all Byzantium's enemies at range. Also equipped with a sword and wearing mail, the Guard Archers can withstand more combat than many other missile units.

The Kataphractoi trace their origins back to Roman times and are normally recruited from amongst the middle classes, providing the Byzantine army with a force of well trained and well disciplined cavalry units. Well protected and armed with a lance and a mace and although somewhat outdated by modern heavy cavalry, they still make for formidable fighters on the battlefield.

Skythikon is the Byzantine term used to describe the mainly Cuman, Asiatic Nomads, who serve the Byzantine Empire exclusively as horse archers. Accustomed to being on horseback in the plains and steppes of Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, these cavalrymen wear little to no armour and are armed with a composite bow and a small sword.

The Vardariotai are drawn mainly from the Magyars that settled in the Vardar Valley, and their descendents. Disciplined and highly trained, the Vardariotai are elite horse archers. They wear light mail to light brigandine armour and fire a composite bow from horseback. Able to relentlessly pepper their enemies with arrows and use their mobility to stay out of trouble.

Used throughout the Byzantine Empire to protect merchants, provincial towns and roads, Militia Cavalry are poorly trained and armoured in light mail armour and equipped with a spear. These men are very good at chasing down archers and light infantry and light cavalry.

These troops are peasants from villages and small towns across the Byzantine Empire who have been levied into local militias to defend towns, roads and bolster armies. Given some training and equipped with a spear and light little to no armour, these units are useful in support roles for heavier and better units.

Pablo Sanchez wrote:I'm actually a little miffed by the preview, it seems like the the Byz are once again going to get screwed in the late game by units that never really evolve. No gunpowder, no improvements to Kataphraktoi, and so on. Hopefully a mod will be released to give them "fantasy" troops.