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

[Vympel]

Has anyone noticed that your catapults miss city walls about half the time, and that in every situation (esp. on the field) the AIs catapults seem to be 5 or 6 times more accurate?

Not really- my catapults in city attacks hardly ever missed. Of course, I've got Culverins now. And it's not even 1300

[Vympel]

Jerusalem is mine. It was poorly defended and easy fodder for my Crusader Army (the Pope called one against Jerusalem)- which left it's home fortress in Adana and took Jerusalem two turns later.

The turn following, I split the Army in half and took the fortress of Acre (also poorly defended)- together with Adana, Acre provides my Holy Land holdings with a strong infrastructure for maintaing a defensive army. The Egyptians, who were formerly in control, appear weak, and I think I can take all of the Middle East and Egypt from them once I build up a second army in the area, or build a fleet in England and send an elite stack over once it's constructed.

The Greeks still worry me though- I've not seen any new armies ever since I crushed their stacks that attacked Adana, but they refuse a ceasefire. I'd rather not deal with Constantinople until after I destroy Egypt.

I had a problem in that I only had one general in the area- the son of the general who originally went for the crusade to Antioch (still in Venice's possession). Luckily a nameless Captain fought a lone Byzantine multi-star general in battle and won (all spearmen versus bodyguard ...) and so I got another general out of that.

My first culverins are ready, though they haven't made it to the armies yet. My King, whoose getting quite old and will no doubt die soon, is besieging the last Milanese castle- I've tried taking it by storm on multiple attempts but he's packed the castle with thousands of men and I don't have enough infantry to do it reliably. Bombards pulverize the defences easily enough, however.

In anticipation of my King's death, I've sent the heir (who is related to the royal family of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage) to the stack to take over.

Hopefully, the Milanese sally on the last turn and my archers make mince meat out of them.

[Dartzap]

The Mongols are on crack, or some other hardcore drug. They've wiped out Egypt, Turkey and are currently smashing into the Greeks. It's going to get fugly when all the major European powers start heading out there...

[D.Turtle]

Has anyone noticed that your catapults miss city walls about half the time, and that in every situation (esp. on the field) the AIs catapults seem to be 5 or 6 times more accurate?

I've noticed that too.

Kind of sucks when despite higher ground, you lose your 2 ccatapult units against one of his (I was using stones, he was using flaimng things - which supposedly are less accurate).

Yeah, tried that. It stays on 0% damage.

Simply continue shooting at them. After some time, they will light up, be abandoned, and then slowly burn to pieces.

You do not see any damage until they start burning.

The Mongols are on crack, or some other hardcore drug. They've wiped out Egypt, Turkey and are currently smashing into the Greeks. It's going to get fugly when all the major European powers start heading out there...

Mongols are crazy (10 star generals, units have 8-9 experience-ouch!).


Has anyone managed to get into the New World yet?

I looked at what buildings I can build, and the shipyards that I need to build the right ships can't be built anywhere - In cities it says I need a Citadel, and in Fortresses it says I need Metropolises (is that the right word for the biggest cities? - I have the german version).

[Dartzap]

Sonova Bitch!

The Spanish and Danish, clearly knowing the end was nigh for them, allied, and now are hitting me on two fronts, meaning that the three full stacks I had heading towards the Danes for a final push have been split and the others sent back to sting the Bull lovers of El-Spanio. I *knew* I should have nipped the Spanish in the bud earlier...

[CaptainChewbacca]

Hey Vympel, check the sig...

[InnocentBystander]

Another fun question; what gods must you pray to in order for the ballista towers to work? I've never seen these towers fire anything but small arrows.

[Dartzap]

Another fun question; what gods must you pray to in order for the ballista towers to work? I've never seen these towers fire anything but small arrows.

Are you sure you had a clean install? I have not once encounterd any of these problems I know my cannon towers work, anyway

[InnocentBystander]

I am sure. Are you sure you've seen ballista towers in action?

[Dartzap]

Pretty damn sure, I fought off an danish attempt to re-take Oslo earlier with them...

[InnocentBystander]

How can you tell that they're firing? Do they have very limited range, or only attack siege weapons?

[Dartzap]

They seemed to be changing between flaming arrows and normal bolts, and they do seem to have a somewhat limited range/

[Vympel]

Hey Vympel, check the sig...

Excellent, another sig contribution ...

[2000AD]

The Mongols are on crack, or some other hardcore drug. They've wiped out Egypt, Turkey and are currently smashing into the Greeks. It's going to get fugly when all the major European powers start heading out there...

Mongols are crazy (10 star generals, units have 8-9 experience-ouch!).

Fucking A. I've actually stopped playing my Egypt game because a 3rd wave of 4-5 full armies, lead by 8* generals and full of gold chevron troops just turned up on my doorstep.

[GuppyShark]

Suspect I'll be toning them down. I know the Mongols were good and all, but that seems a bit over the top.

[Hotfoot]

I guess maybe they heard about all the brutal smackdowns the mongols were getting in MTW1 and decided to up the ante.

[Vympel]

Yeah, in the original I owned them, constantly.

Let them rush against my cities and break on them like water on rock. I'll kill them in the streets if they manage to knock down my walls.

(If you're foolish enough to fight the Mongols on the open ground, you deserve what you get).

On the plus side though, Mongol infantry fucking sucks. Somewhat of an advantage. And the fact they have no cannon.

[Darth Wong]

What's the best route to take when going on a crusade to Jerusalem? That's a long fucking way, and when I just click on Jerusalem my army decides that it's going to go the long way around, completely bypassing the most direct route through Eastern Europe and Asia Minor so it can go round the mountains and approach Jerusalem from the east.

[Cincinnatus]

What's the best route to take when going on a crusade to Jerusalem? That's a long fucking way, and when I just click on Jerusalem my army decides that it's going to go the long way around, completely bypassing the most direct route through Eastern Europe and Asia Minor so it can go round the mountains and approach Jerusalem from the east.

If you have a strong enough navy, load your crusading army onto ships and get to Jerusalem by sea. That's what I did as England. It still took forever, but it was faster (and safer, as long as you have enough ships) then the land route.

[InnocentBystander]

I started my Crusade in Greece, I didn't have a strong navy, but I managed to ferry my army from Greece to Asia minor, and from there they walked, it took a few turns, but all in all it wasn't too bad.

My guess, as to why the auto-pathing doesn't take them the quick way is that Constantinople sorta blocks passage. You should order your armies to head to Greece, and hire a boat from there. Cross Asia minor on foot if the waters are filled with people you are at war with, or take a ship all the way the there.

Of course, Greece->Antioch is much further than Europe->Jerusalem. Guess you weren't campaigning close enough to the Muslims

[Darth Wong]

Good news to report: in my second game (I'm doing the long campaign now), I discovered that longbowmen can put down their sharpened stakes in the city square.

Recreating the Agincourt defense in the city square, with flanking protected archers and spearmen in the middle, has allowed me to repeatedly annihilate huge attacking armies when they try to assault my cities.

[Dartzap]

Argh! First it was the Mongols..now its the Timolds, or whatever they're called... Ah well, atleast they'll keep the mongols busy for a while.

The tricky thing is that these bastards have the same 8 star generals..plus monster bombards. The worlds fucked.

[Companion Cube]

Good news to report: in my second game (I'm doing the long campaign now), I discovered that longbowmen can put down their sharpened stakes in the city square.

Recreating the Agincourt defense in the city square, with flanking protected archers and spearmen in the middle, has allowed me to repeatedly annihilate huge attacking armies when they try to assault my cities.

May I ask how you can get them to put their stakes down? I've looked around the interface but couldn't spot a shortcut button.

[Dominus Atheos]

Good news to report: in my second game (I'm doing the long campaign now), I discovered that longbowmen can put down their sharpened stakes in the city square.

Recreating the Agincourt defense in the city square, with flanking protected archers and spearmen in the middle, has allowed me to repeatedly annihilate huge attacking armies when they try to assault my cities.

May I ask how you can get them to put their stakes down? I've looked around the interface but couldn't spot a shortcut button.

You can only do it when you're deploying them.

[GuppyShark]

Oh man, last night I went into the campaign data files to unlock the other factions.

There's a lot of legacy Rome data in there, including the fluff for the three main Roman families.