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

[Master of Cards]

[wautd]

Why couldn't you shoot/attack them?

When I did, my units just walked away

edit: perhaps some cut of units where stuck somewhere in my city. Map didn't show anything tough

[PeZook]

Well, so much for the "Dark Times" of Poland.

The HRE, as it turns out, only had two full army stacks (i killed one, Venice killed the other) and four cities left. After I took Nurenburg without even having to stop, they suddendly started begging for peace, so this threat was pretty much no threat at all.

The Russians are now at war with me, having betrayed the alliance, but their heir gave me a mission to assassinate his father. Even if I can't do it on time, I know where all their generals are, and they don't have any army to speak of, so they'll all die (including the heir...) and I'll proceed with taking cities turned rebel.

Hungarians attacked me as well (hey, when it rains, it pours, right?) and are besieging my capital of Krakow, but it's well defended and relief forces are on their way. Repelling of the assault is by no means certain, though, so it's entirely possible I will have to retake my own capital. I think I'll make peace with the bastards, build up and crush them for this insolence.

How many cities per castle do you guys have, on average? I've got one castle per four or five cities, but it turned out that way because I've got land borders with treacherous enemies on all sides, so I needed them to reinforce my armies.

[Vympel]

How many cities per castle do you guys have, on average? I've got one castle per four or five cities, but it turned out that way because I've got land borders with treacherous enemies on all sides, so I needed them to reinforce my armies.

I have forty regions, and among them, the following castles:

Nottingham*
Caen
Angers
Bordeaux
Toulouse
Pamplona
Valencia
Bern
Hamburg
Adana
Aleppo
Gaza
Acre
Granada
Castle-in-the-Centre-of-Spain-Whoose-Name-I-Can't-Remember

*Nottingham is my premier military facility. The Sherwood Archers are awesome, and it can produce the full range of castle-units.

So 15/40 of my regions are castle equipped- or a little over 1/3.

Of those, several of them will be converted to cities- I've wasted money doing them up, but they're far away from any possible action or invasion and so I don't see the point in keeping them around. Specifically- Caen, Angers and Bordeaux. The others are either important to my military machine for refit/upgrade/building new armies, or important for defence (e.g. Bern and Hamburg defend my frontier with the HRE/Poland (and possibly the Mongols).

One problem I'm having is that the Mongols are one province away from my Italian holdings (I hold all of Italy)- and their military force is huge and formidable. But there are no castles on the Italian mainland. So I'm stuck with the undesireable prospect of defending huge cities with the nearest professional military reinforcements being from Toulouse, Bern, and, when I take it, Sicily.

The Explorer's Guild has tasked me to take Zagreb (right next to Venice)- my army can easily take it (I tested it out on auto-resolve- a massive Venician stack was too far from the city to help on the turn I'm on) but it puts me in the position of sharing a border with the Mongols (Sofia region, former Hungarian capital).

Meanwhile, the Spaniards only have two provinces left- the Lisbon region in what we consider "Spain", and the region of North Africa directly to the south. Hopefully when I take Lisbon I would've killed off all of Spanish royalty and I can place a fleet on the land-bridge between Spain and North Africa and focus on destroying the Mongols by moving my two armies in Spain to Italy (already have three armies in Italy, but want more). I'd eliminate the Moors, but the distances are too great and they're too weak.

Meanwhile, in the Holy Land, I hold the entire coast of the Middle East except for Antioch (still held by Venice), and I've also taken Alexandria and Cairo.

However, the Egyptians, last I checked, possess Constantinople. They took it with a massive jihad stack several decades ago. I can't worry about that now.

The Turks are fucked- they have only three regions so I don't need to worry about them. They'll probably be crushed by the Timurids whenever they appear.

On the cusp of the Black Plague. The huge profits I'm making will surely evaporate, but once it's over the money will start rolling in again.

[Dartzap]

I just did something incredibly British. I invaded The Caribbean

[Darth Wong]

The constant jihad at Jerusalem has been rather exhausting and tedious. I've lost count of all the full-stack armies I've had to fight off. It's a good thing I've got the citadel at Gaza, so I can reinforce Jerusalem with fresh troops who are only 1 movement turn away. They never attack Gaza, only Jerusalem. But it consumes a lot of time and money; they're hurling a seemingly endless stream of manpower at me to bleed my resources. And they take turns doing it, between the Egyptians and the Mongols and the Timurids, while all my fellow Catholic factions sit on their asses or worse yet, attack me elsewhere. Moreover, my money situation has gotten tight ever since my cities reached the point where every new building costs ten thousand florins to build. I'm in no danger of losing territory or being conquered, but the end-game is becoming a bit of a grind.

[PeZook]

Oh, goddammit!

The AI just ganged up on me. Every single one of my neighbors (the Danes, the HRE, Russia, Hungary and Venice) decided to start besieging my cities.

And the Pope does nothing. It's like he doesn't exist. All my brown-nosing seems to have been a complete waste of resources.
Shit. This is gonna be really tough.

[Adrian Laguna]

The constant jihad at Jerusalem has been rather exhausting and tedious. I've lost count of all the full-stack armies I've had to fight off. It's a good thing I've got the citadel at Gaza, so I can reinforce Jerusalem with fresh troops who are only 1 movement turn away. They never attack Gaza, only Jerusalem. But it consumes a lot of time and money; they're hurling a seemingly endless stream of manpower at me to bleed my resources. And they take turns doing it, between the Egyptians and the Mongols and the Timurids, while all my fellow Catholic factions sit on their asses or worse yet, attack me elsewhere. Moreover, my money situation has gotten tight ever since my cities reached the point where every new building costs ten thousand florins to build. I'm in no danger of losing territory or being conquered, but the end-game is becoming a bit of a grind.

Yay! I was worried about the end-game in MTW2 becoming a mop-up operation.

[Stravo]

The constant jihad at Jerusalem has been rather exhausting and tedious. I've lost count of all the full-stack armies I've had to fight off. It's a good thing I've got the citadel at Gaza, so I can reinforce Jerusalem with fresh troops who are only 1 movement turn away. They never attack Gaza, only Jerusalem. But it consumes a lot of time and money; they're hurling a seemingly endless stream of manpower at me to bleed my resources. And they take turns doing it, between the Egyptians and the Mongols and the Timurids, while all my fellow Catholic factions sit on their asses or worse yet, attack me elsewhere. Moreover, my money situation has gotten tight ever since my cities reached the point where every new building costs ten thousand florins to build. I'm in no danger of losing territory or being conquered, but the end-game is becoming a bit of a grind.

Yay! I was worried about the end-game in MTW2 becoming a mop-up operation.

I prefer mop up to annoying battles that turn every turn into a grind. That gets dull real fast,

I'm curious as to whether people wait things out to see if they can discover America or do they just go for the win. I've simply gone for the win each time, by the time I approach the victory conditions most of the other factions are dead or crippled beyond any credible threat so what's the point of waiting it out?

[Vympel]

I've got close to 45 regions now, but that's made up entirely of the English home Isles + Ireland, France, nearly all of Spain, and Italy- as well as the sliver of my holdings in the Holy Land. That leaves the East as pretty much untouched and able to send armies against me- though obviously they can't win Don't know if I'll wait for the New World or not- it's supposed to get you lots of money ...

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

I'm holding out at around ~40 regions (a bit less, depending on crusades and hordes arriving at times) until I get the New World.

[Darth Wong]

I never did get a message about the New World for some reason, and I won the campaign with Jerusalem and the 45 territories. I kept playing, and now I've only got 5 turns left (what happens when I hit the end?), and I still never got the message about the New World.

PS. My glorious crusader army has successfully won victories in both the Jerusalem crusade and the Antioch crusade. Many of my armoured swordsmen units have three gold chevrons of experience. Lesser armies flee in terror before them.

[Vympel]

Anyone else find themselves zooming in on battles and rooting for individuals in their units now?

"Behind you, idiot! Get him! He's gonna hit you! See, he hit you! Recover! Get your shield up! No, moron, hit him with the damn- yes, that's it! Hahahah he's got his back to you! Stick him! Yayyyyyy!"

Or is it just me?

[Cincinnatus]

I never did get a message about the New World for some reason, and I won the campaign with Jerusalem and the 45 territories. I kept playing, and now I've only got 5 turns left (what happens when I hit the end?), and I still never got the message about the New World.

The message doesn't announce the existence of the New World, it just says that some scholars have theorized that the world might be round. You're then able to build carracks, and the world map expands westward, but it's still all under the fog of war. You have to send ships to explore and find the Americas.

[2000AD]

I'm holding out at around ~40 regions (a bit less, depending on crusades and hordes arriving at times) until I get the New World.

Don't worry, after you win you can continue the game.

[Vympel]

I'm on 43 regions. If I hurry, I can take Sicily and Zagreb or Leon and finish the game before the Black Plague even starts!

I annihilated a 2,000+ strong Venician army in the Zagreb province packed to the gills with Dismounted Feudal Knights, a few units of Italian Spear Militia, and lots of Peasant Crossbowmen, as well as one unit of Venetian archers and their general. I took about ~300 casualties.

Wouldn't have been able to win if not for the following:

1. They had no artillery. I had 2x Culverin and 2x Mortar.
2. They had no cavalry apart from the General's Bodyguard. I had 2x English Knights and my own Bodyguard.
3. My Retinue Longbowmen and Sherwood Archers outranged their Peasant Crossbowmen, though they still took some return fire at times, his quite formidable crossbow front line was decimated to nothing that my 2x Dismounted English Knights and 2x Armored Swordsmen couldn't shrug off.
4. The perfect charge. All three of my cavalry units (after killing their general) charged into the rear of the Venetian army, sending bodies flying every which way and saving the battle, which was going badly for me since the enemy had lots of very skilled Dismounted Feudal Knights. One of my Dismounted English Knights was reduced to just 6 men from 120.

[Vympel]

Finished my first game on the very turn the Black Plague first hit.

All factions are now unlocked.

It was interesting times when I finished my game- a Crusade had been called to take Constantinople back from the Egyptians (who landed a huge Jihad Army there with a fleet, bypassing all the other Greek lands) and the Pope had ordered my King Auncell the Malevolent (56 years old- only the third King in the game) to personally join the Crusade to Constantinople. He was in an excellent position to do so- with all of Italy able to provide a strong fleet of Gun Holks to transport his army from Pamerno, Sicily (which was the province that gave me victory) Constantinople would've easily fallen.

The bigger concern are the Mongols, who are rampaging around Hungary and at war with my erstwhile ally, the Holy Roman Empire.

I had just begun raking in huge amounts of money (so much so that I wasn't spending it all every turn) now that the Black Plague has arrived, so I expect I won't be making profits like that again anytime soon.

I might go back to that completed game and see if I can crush every Islamic faction, destroy the Mongols, and make it to the new world.

On the other hand- I now have a decision to make- alter the timescale of my much-desired Byzantine Greek game to 0.50, giving me:

a: lots more turns; and
b: presumably, a chance to finish the game well, well, well, before gunpowder is even introduced?

Or should I keep it on the standard lame timescale? Thoughts? Who else has played around with the timescale.

[Vympel]

Oh, for those wondering why your merchants fucking suck, make no money, and keep getting their assets seized- it's because there's a bug that resets the amount of florins they're getting from the resource they're on (it's supposed to steadily go up) every time you load the game.

[Alferd Packer]

Oh. So in theory, if you leave a merchant unmolested for 40 years, he'll be pulling in 500 florins a turn by the end of it?

[Vympel]

Oh. So in theory, if you leave a merchant unmolested for 40 years, he'll be pulling in 500 florins a turn by the end of it?

Dunno- not sure if there's a limit to how many florins he can pull in, but it definitely serves as an explanation for why their skill never seems to go up so the AI keeps on seizing their assets

I started a Byzantine campaign with the standard 2 year per turn timescale- I really liked the detailed overview at the start (shows they put effort in- "Yassou, Emperor!") and I engaged in a battle in Smyrna and my General gave a good speech.

I quit that game without saving it, still need to decide what to do about the timescale. I was getting my ass kicked in that battle anyway because I only had Byzantine Spearmen and Trebizond Archers and didn't give my archers enough time to do their work

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Anyone else find themselves zooming in on battles and rooting for individuals in their units now?

"Behind you, idiot! Get him! He's gonna hit you! See, he hit you! Recover! Get your shield up! No, moron, hit him with the damn- yes, that's it! Hahahah he's got his back to you! Stick him! Yayyyyyy!"

Or is it just me?

I've been doing that since Rome.

I particularly like to look at weak units or units that otherwise suck in melee, then find the most hardcore individual. I was watching a Peasant Archer group on the walls once while defending a city; one man was essentially holding off an entire unit of melee troops while I ordered the rest to fire point-blank. Hard-fucking-core.

[PeZook]

Or should I keep it on the standard lame timescale? Thoughts? Who else has played around with the timescale.

I "played" with the timescale (eg. modified it before even starting the game, as well as unlocking Poland), and the game feels great. Though the danger of finishing it before gunpowder comes about is very real - but in my opinion it really doesn't outweight the irritation I'd feel at those stupid two year turns. Of course, that's just me - I may as well play on the standard timescale if I find I finished the game too early.

Your general have a good speech? Lucky you. Poland has just about the most generic speeches there are. To hear your commander say two sentences is a rarity. Also, the unit selection sucks ass. Clearly, while CA was gloating on how they made "all factions viable" what they really meant was "We made some more viable than others."

On another note: God, the Pope is such a fucking dick!

Here I am, on a crusade to retake Rome for the Papacy from excommunicated Sicilians. One of my noble sons is leading the crusade himself (a raving lunatic, but still...). So far, the Pope doesn't have any reason to not like me, I even voted for the old fart instead of my own preferati!

So after a long siege, I finally take Rome and give it back to the Papacy when they ask. Hooray! I am now a friend of the Pope! Poland is held up as a noble example to all Christendom!

The very next turn the sorry fuck sent an Inquisitor after one of my best administrators and burned him at the stake. God fucking dammit!

I already decided that Inquisitor must die. I'm thinking of assassinating the Pope as well, but this is an emotional decision and must be considered more.

Fucking Pope...

[Darth Wong]

To be honest, now that I've played out both the short and long campaign, I'm sort of waiting for the first bugfix patch to come out. This game, as beautiful as it is, is plagued with a horrible list of bugs. The useless merchants, one-sided siege tower flammability, and ineffective billhooks are only a small part of the bug list. The city walls in particular are terrible; they've made some improvements over RTW (especially the bit about needing units nearby to take control of towers), but they've also introduced plenty of bugs, like the ballista towers that fire ordinary arrows, the non-functioning boiling oil ducts, and the fortress cannon towers that do absolutely nothing. And then there's the atrocious cavalry movement, which is much worse than it ever was in RTW.

I'm fairly confident that these bugs will get ironed out in time, but until then, the level of bugginess does dampen my ardour to play another campaign now that I've beaten it on both the long and short games.

[2000AD]

the non-functioning boiling oil ducts,

There's meant to be boiling oil in the game?

[NRS Guardian]

There's meant to be boiling oil in the game?

There should be since it was in RTW. Any stone walled cities would dump burning oil on anyone attacking the gate. Usually meaning rams would be quickly destroyed if they attacked the gates of a stone wall.