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

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-25 11:58am

you know I kind of had the same thing happen to me in Rome, I was getting attacked by the egyptians, and I finally bribed an enemy general after I had crushed his whole army and reduced his bodyguard to 6 men. after my assassins were done, he was one of the only Egyptians left, and eventually after egypt's assassins were done, and heavy casualties from roman politics, my faction leader WAS the egyptian Turn coat....

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2006-11-25 01:12pm

If anyone doesn't know yet, you can place a stack of ships onto the land bridge green arrows and the computer won't be able to move anything across unless it removes the stack of ships first. Its the only reason why Scotland (trapped on their last territory in Ireland) hasn't steam rolled through Inverness, Edinburgh, and York with their full stack. After my own army under the command of the king took Edinburgh and Inverness, it's been taking me a long time to train militia units to take over garrison duty and then pull all of my front line military units all the way back to Nottingham to have them retrained. I like how CA took their own approach to logistics, a very fine touch. Although, it bothers me a bit that it can take up to a dozen years to build some buildings and six or more years to retrain a full stack.

On another note, does anyone know how to get certain guild buildings? I've been able to only get the explorer's, assassin's, thieves', sword smith's and merchant's guilds. It also seems that I'm not getting the bonuses when I build the particular unit. My merchants aren't any better than one or two (three if I'm lucky) skill points.

Master of Cards · Post by **Master of Cards** » 2006-11-25 03:24pm

I have done 2 crusades which I called with Poland. I have 6or7 terioties in Holy Land and the french were unlucky I have 3 territoires there

Decue · Post by **Decue** » 2006-11-25 03:47pm

heh, in my current game the mongols has declared Jihad on London (I'm english) and now the Pope declared a Crusade against me to retake Rome, I don't feel loved right now... maybe it was the half a dozen popes I killed in battle and had assassinated

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-11-25 08:07pm

You should be able to reinforce an entire stack in the space of a full turn. Werent' we able to do that in Rome? I like the ability to recruit three units at a time, but only being able to reinforce three units at a time? Sucks.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-11-25 11:43pm

Vympel wrote:You should be able to reinforce an entire stack in the space of a full turn. Werent' we able to do that in Rome? I like the ability to recruit three units at a time, but only being able to reinforce three units at a time? Sucks.

That's why you have to carefully manage your units by using one unit to reinforce others until they're at full strength. If you have a lot of units which are down to 80% strength, you can take one unit and bring three others back up to 100% strength by redistributing its manpower so that it drops to 20% strength. Then you retrain that unit, so one can effectively retrain four 80% strength units back up to 100% strength by only using one unit slot and one turn. Of course, this doesn't do you a damned bit of good if your units have been knocked down to, say, 30% strength.

As for Rome, that was just an oversight in the programming. It always struck me as silly that you could only train one unit per turn but you could retrain an unlimited number of men in that same turn as long as you could fit them into the queue.

PS. The never-ending plague is pissing me off. There are a couple of cities which have been almost ceaselessly suffering from plague for dozens of turns after the Black Plague ended everywhere else.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-11-26 12:29am

Well, I feel silly now. I was wondering why only the gatehouse cannon towers would open fire and none of the others most of the time, yet in one of my other battles the cannon towers at the corner of the city opened fire. Suddenly I realized in hindsight that this was because I had archers at that corner, and I guessed that you need a unit of men nearby in order to "activate" the tower (presumably to keep unmanned towers from butchering attacking troops the way they often would in RTW).

So I tested this theory by moving men near a tower that was in range of enemy units but wasn't firing at them. Lo and behold, when the men came close to it, the tower suddenly came to life and started firing at the enemy. So that's one more problem solved.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2006-11-26 02:12am

That's actually kind of realistic. No longer will towers be manned by phantom gunners who randomly change allegiance depending on who last passed through the tower.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-11-26 02:28am

The banners that fly above the towers indicate whether or not they are manned. Also, I don't think the attackers can ever activate towers, only the defender.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-26 02:36am

you know that's how I killed most of a phraoh's army in RTW?

just climbed the walls in loose formation, slaughtered his archers, and then captured all of his towers turning his axe, and spearmen and even his charioteers into pinchosions...

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-11-26 05:57am

Darth Wong wrote: That's why you have to carefully manage your units by using one unit to reinforce others until they're at full strength. If you have a lot of units which are down to 80% strength, you can take one unit and bring three others back up to 100% strength by redistributing its manpower so that it drops to 20% strength. Then you retrain that unit, so one can effectively retrain four 80% strength units back up to 100% strength by only using one unit slot and one turn. Of course, this doesn't do you a damned bit of good if your units have been knocked down to, say, 30% strength.

Yup, that's the method I currently use. It's annoying attacking Italy- my nearest castle is Toulouse and I don't want to convert any of the Italian cities to castles, so I have to send the handful of understrength units back to Toulouse for retraining. Usually Armored Swordsmen and English Knights (mounted and dismounted).

As for Rome, that was just an oversight in the programming. It always struck me as silly that you could only train one unit per turn but you could retrain an unlimited number of men in that same turn as long as you could fit them into the queue.

It frustrates me more in Medieval 2 because the timescale is so wonky. Two years a turn, general's age every four years, etc- it just results in all sorts of silliness that wouldn't affect me otherwise.

In my next game I'm definitely adjusting the timscale to 1 turn per season, not 1 turn per two years

PS. The never-ending plague is pissing me off. There are a couple of cities which have been almost ceaselessly suffering from plague for dozens of turns after the Black Plague ended everywhere else.

I'm in the early 1300s now- I'm gritting my teeth for the ouch-time.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2006-11-26 10:02am

Vympel wrote: It frustrates me more in Medieval 2 because the timescale is so wonky. Two years a turn, general's age every four years, etc- it just results in all sorts of silliness that wouldn't affect me otherwise.

In my next game I'm definitely adjusting the timscale to 1 turn per season, not 1 turn per two years

I think they may have left the timescale on 2.0 as a stupid accident. The game "feels" and plays wonderfully on 0.5.

I can't imagine playing on 2.0, with centuries literally flying by. I'm on my 27th turn right now. That would be, what, 50 odd years in-game? It would take something like 20 years for a diplomat to arrive in Rome from Krakow...it still takes five, but it's much more believable...not to mention that the generals and agents age properly and seasons aren't all messed up

Plus, since when did Medieval soldiers receive two year's training?

Six months is still quite a lot for the period, but as before - much more believable.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-11-26 11:54am

Wouldn't technology advance way too quickly with the "proper" timescale, though? Culverins in 1150 and such?

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2006-11-26 01:27pm

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Wouldn't technology advance way too quickly with the "proper" timescale, though? Culverins in 1150 and such?

I didn't get to that point yet. Though I'm sure it's gonna bother me if it's true

You can always compromise by setting the timescale to 1.0. It worked well enough in Medieval 1, and the amount of construction doesn't seem to be terribly different.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-11-26 01:43pm

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Wouldn't technology advance way too quickly with the "proper" timescale, though? Culverins in 1150 and such?

No, because events are tied to the years, not the number of turns. Things like generals aging are tied to turns, rather than years, which is why they age once every four years.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-11-26 02:37pm

The problem is that by the time gunpowder finally comes along, given the rate at which a typically competent player expands, you'll already control half the map by the time it arrives. By the time the Timurids show up, they'd run face-first into a wall of invincible citadels and cities.

PS. I'm currently fighting off a jihad at Jerusalem. I've already wiped out a Timurid jihad army and an Egyptian jihad army. The Timurids came ready to play; they had a full-stack army with 3-silver-chevron experience all over, and four units of war elephants (including two units of elephant artillery!)

I used spear militia next to the defense towers to keep them active and discovered to my chagrin that there was another bug in the software: the ballista towers that you build on an Egyptian city will fire ordinary arrows. Argh. 3200 florins on ballista towers for nothing. They ended up taking the walls and killing off my sacrificial spear militia, but not without taking some casualties from the nerfed towers. Then they started rumbling down the main street toward my city square with their invincible high-experience army, with the elephants leading the charge. That's when they ran into the little surprise I had waiting for them at the city square: two units of culverins. I blasted the elephants with cannon fire until half of them were dead and the rest ran amok. And ooh boy, did they ever run amok, turning and barreling through the tightly packed mass of enemy troops in the main street as they tried to leave the city. They caused horrific casualties among their own troops and basically broke the back of their entire army right there. From that point on, it was just more cannon fire and archer fire until there was almost nothing left.

Lonestar · Post by **Lonestar** » 2006-11-26 03:17pm

Is there anything you can do to get the Black Death over with quicker? Or doy ou just have to bit a pillow and take it until it's over? I ask, because over the course of one turn it's pretty much wrecked my economy.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2006-11-26 03:40pm

Lonestar wrote:Is there anything you can do to get the Black Death over with quicker? Or doy ou just have to bit a pillow and take it until it's over? I ask, because over the course of one turn it's pretty much wrecked my economy.

I think the higher your level of sanitation buildings does generally have a large effect on how many of your troops and plebs are die.

It took me ten turns for it finally vanish from the majority of my towns and cities, though one or two border settlements seemed to keep it for at least 5 more turns after that.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-26 04:10pm

There is something wrong with Rams. It took a unit of peasant archers, standing 5 feet away (ie, every arrow hit) half their ammo to set the ram on fire. I know rams were WAY too easy to set on fire in rome, but this is just absurd.

Also, there are 2000 mongols sitting on the other side of my city, and I have no idea what to do...

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2006-11-26 05:11pm

InnocentBystander wrote: Also, there are 2000 mongols sitting on the other side of my city, and I have no idea what to do...

Here's a list:

1. Build knights or militia spearmen.

2. Bring your cavalry and archers to the besieged town.

3. Set up stakes around your town square.

4. Bring swordsmen to your walls.

5. Use flame arrows.

6. Stick your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-26 05:14pm

I'm going to be honest, I cannot figure out this whole stakes thing. All I have are peasant archers, and I don't see any button for stakes???

But really, I'm not worried about the mongols. I was attacked by 4000, my 2000 city defenders held back the first wave at the gate without any trouble, but the second group, on the other side of the city, they aren't moving. I can't just attack them, and I can't convince them to attack me!

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2006-11-26 06:00pm

InnocentBystander wrote:I'm going to be honest, I cannot figure out this whole stakes thing. All I have are peasant archers, and I don't see any button for stakes???

But really, I'm not worried about the mongols. I was attacked by 4000, my 2000 city defenders held back the first wave at the gate without any trouble, but the second group, on the other side of the city, they aren't moving. I can't just attack them, and I can't convince them to attack me!

That's a bug I've kept running into, and it's pissing me off. You end up either needing to forsake your defences entirely and sally out to hit the enemy (and you're SOL if you've got a small garrison) or speed up the timer and wait for the battle to expire.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-26 06:17pm

Battles don't expire, silly

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-11-26 06:21pm

InnocentBystander wrote:I'm going to be honest, I cannot figure out this whole stakes thing. All I have are peasant archers, and I don't see any button for stakes???

Because peasant archers can't use stakes. Longbowmen only.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-26 07:16pm

I don't think Venice gets longbowmen. I think they get Venian Archers.

Did everyone on the planet decide to play Britian....?