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* GoingDownWithTheShip: The results of having units stored on a boat. In sea battles, it seems meaningless if you have a few dozen units of spearmen that can board the enemy...
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* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Having an enemy join a crusade, but taking too long to get to your destination can cause units to start becoming disgruntled and abandoning your army. Making a crusading army abandon the cause or taking the general out of the crusade will put all your units (in the crusade) in danger of abandoning you in the next few turns if you don't reinstate their crusade status. If you are attacking a far off place, you probably should use a boat, but units can still abandon you at sea EVEN IF THEY DON'T TAKE ANY SHIPS WITH THEM. What did those HEAVILY armored, unmounted knights swim a hundred miles to shore?
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** Having a priest in your army increases conversion rates of the area you army is in. The priest will not say anything about slaughtering civilians. Also, you can have a very pious general to the point he is called a saint (think St. Joan of Arc). A lesser example is priests and inquisitors who burn "heretics" and "witches".
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* EvilPaysBetter: Instead of occupying a settlement with a minimum of fuss, you can choose to sack it, looting and tearing up the place while eliminating part of the troublesome population. In ''Medieval II'', this kills off lots of people, gives you the same amount of money as occupation, brings the settlements public order up a lot due to fear and a massive fall in squalor, and greatly reduces the value of the city. Some Middle-eastern factions can enslave the populace instead, which is functionally the same thing. It really depends on where you're attacking. If you're playing, say, Spain or England and are on a Crusade to Jerusalem with one or two armies, it might make more sense to invade cities along the way, massacre the populace, sack the town, destroy every structure in the city for money, and then keep on going without leaving any troops to garrison. The city will rebel and go into anarchy, but that's fine, because you're not there to take territory, you're there to pillage and plunder and destroy the faction you're crusading against.
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* EvilPaysBetter: Instead of occupying a settlement with a minimum of fuss, you can choose to sack it, looting and tearing up the place while eliminating part of the troublesome population. In ''Medieval II'', this kills off lots of people, gives you the same amount of money as occupation, brings the settlements public order up a lot due to fear and a massive fall in squalor, and greatly reduces the value of the city. Some Middle-eastern factions can enslave the populace instead, which is functionally the same thing. It really depends on where you're attacking. If you're playing, say, Spain or England and are on a Crusade to Jerusalem with one or two armies, it might make more sense to invade cities along the way, massacre the populace, sack the town, destroy every structure in the city for money, and then keep on going without leaving any troops to garrison. The city will rebel and go into anarchy, but that's fine, because you're not there to take territory, you're there to pillage and plunder and destroy the faction you're crusading against. Even better, if you release prisoners or successfully ransom them off, you can get chivalry points. Send in you priests to pre-convert the population and then sack the town. You get more money, less squalor, less disorder, and BONUSES for lack of religious diversity and having a "chivalrous" run the place while killing [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper thousands of civilians and sparing a few dozen soldiers.]]
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** God/Allah help you if you need to face the mongols and their THOUSANDS of archers, many of which have compound bows and are mounted making them impossible to run down. It's not a matter of if they surround you, it's when.
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** Much more obvious in game play. 1) Generals can live way longer than they should and still be fighting fit. 2) Having ANY country ruling Europe. 3) Getting to America a few decades before Columbus...
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* AnnoyingArrows: It should be noted that it takes skill to use bowmen in Medieval 2 as the arrows are tweaked to do much less damage than in any of the other games in the series. It gets somewhat ridiculous when a peasant walks off the 10th arrow in a row like it was a friendly punch. Nevertheless, the sheer power of their archers gives England an absurd edge over its neighbours, thanks to their longbowmen coupled with reasonably strong cavalrymen and good infantry.
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* AnnoyingArrows: It should be noted that it takes skill to use bowmen in Medieval 2 as the arrows are tweaked to do much less damage than in any of the other games in the series. It gets somewhat ridiculous when a peasant walks off the 10th arrow in a row like it was a friendly punch. Nevertheless, the sheer power of their archers gives England an absurd edge over its neighbours, thanks to their longbowmen coupled with reasonably strong cavalrymen and good infantry. See the arrow exploitation in analysis.
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** The arrow exploitation in analysis.
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''Medieval II: Total War'' is the fourth instalment in the ''TotalWar'' series of strategy games. Like all the other games in the series, it features a mixture of turn-based strategy on a campaign map and real-time tactics on a battlefield. It is essentially a remake of the original ''Medieval: Total War'' with updated graphics and the more detailed campaign map introduced in its direct predecessor, ''Rome: Total War''.
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''Medieval II: Total War'' is the fourth instalment in the ''TotalWar'' series of strategy games. Like all the other games in the series, it features a mixture of turn-based strategy on a campaign map and real-time tactics on a battlefield. It is essentially a remake of the original ''Medieval: ''[[VideoGame/MedievalTotalWar Medieval: Total War'' War]]'' with updated graphics and the more detailed campaign map introduced in its direct predecessor, ''Rome: ''[[VideoGame/RomeTotalWar Rome: Total War''.War]]''.
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As such, the player controls one of many kingdoms in medieval Europe, starting in the [[TheHighMiddleAges late 11th century]] (shortly before the First Crusade). The goal is to prevail over ones neighbours and carve out an empire to rival Rome. In addition to the lands covered in the first ''Medieval'', this game allows the player to discover America and face the mighty Aztec Empire while expanding his kingdom to the New World.
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As such, the player controls one of many kingdoms in medieval Europe, starting in the [[TheHighMiddleAges late 11th century]] (shortly before the First Crusade). The goal is to prevail over ones neighbours and carve out an empire to rival Rome. In addition to the lands covered in the first ''Medieval'', ''[[VideoGame/MedievalTotalWar Medieval]]'', this game allows the player to discover America and face the mighty Aztec Empire while expanding his kingdom to the New World.
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* KarmaMeter: ''Medieval II'' has a Chivalry-Dread axis. Being nice to prisoners, keeping your cities on a low tax rate when your general is governing them, and honorably attacking the enemy head-on builds Chivalry points, which makes characters better administrators and boosts their armies' morale on the battlefield. Dreaded characters aren't much use in cities, but enemy armies who face them will have lowered morale. Dread points are built by performing heinous acts such as butchering prisoners, using assassins, keeping the tax rate high when governing and running down fleeing units... and also by using spies and "fighting dirty."
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* AnticlimaxBoss:
** The Mongols are scary as hell in the open field, and are hard to beat back. However, once they hit your cities or a defended bridge, their horse archers are just cannon fodder for your spearmen, archers, and crossbows. The Timurids on the other hand... there are a couple ways to defeat them at their own game in the field, but all require locking down their archers. And cavalry. Lots and lots of cavalry.
** The ''Britannia'' campaign in the ''Kingdoms'' expansion for ''Medieval II'' has William Wallace's army, which is presented as an enormous and impressively badass army, with fully-armed and armored and high experience troops. In a straight fight, they'd be tough to beat... except that Wallace himself is an infantry general in an otherwise normal unit of Highland Nobles. That means is that all it takes is one well-timed heavy cavalry charge, and....
** The Mongols are scary as hell in the open field, and are hard to beat back. However, once they hit your cities or a defended bridge, their horse archers are just cannon fodder for your spearmen, archers, and crossbows. The Timurids on the other hand... there are a couple ways to defeat them at their own game in the field, but all require locking down their archers. And cavalry. Lots and lots of cavalry.
** The ''Britannia'' campaign in the ''Kingdoms'' expansion for ''Medieval II'' has William Wallace's army, which is presented as an enormous and impressively badass army, with fully-armed and armored and high experience troops. In a straight fight, they'd be tough to beat... except that Wallace himself is an infantry general in an otherwise normal unit of Highland Nobles. That means is that all it takes is one well-timed heavy cavalry charge, and....
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* GoodIsNotSoft: Even the most chivalrous generals are perfectly willing to fight to the death.
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* HiredGuns: Mercenaries are available from the get-go (for a price), ranging from cannon fodder to high-tier units like ''landschneckt'' pikemen. On the other hand, they tend to have higher upkeep and grow increasingly irrelevant by the late game as fully professional armies come of age.
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* HiredGuns: Mercenaries are available from the get-go (for a price), ranging from cannon fodder to high-tier units like ''landschneckt'' ''landsknecht'' pikemen. On the other hand, they tend to have higher upkeep and grow increasingly irrelevant by the late game as fully professional armies come of age.
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* HiredGuns: Mercenaries are available from the get-go (for a price), ranging from cannon fodder to high-tier units like <I>landschneckts</i>. On the other hand, they tend to have higher upkeep and grow increasingly irrelevant by the late game as fully professional armies come of age.
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* HiredGuns: Mercenaries are available from the get-go (for a price), ranging from cannon fodder to high-tier units like <I>landschneckts</i>.''landschneckt'' pikemen. On the other hand, they tend to have higher upkeep and grow increasingly irrelevant by the late game as fully professional armies come of age.
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* HiredGuns: Mercenaries are available from the get-go (for a price), ranging from cannon fodder to high-tier units like <I>landschneckts</i>. On the other hand, they tend to have higher upkeep and grow increasingly irrelevant by the late game as fully professional armies come of age.
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* GunsAreWorthless: Played straight initially. Early gunpowder units are woefully inaccurate, underpowered and only really good at scaring enemy units. Averted later on, since arquebusiers and musketeers can make mincemeat of whole armies when positioned right.
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Example Indentation. As a general rule, if there is only one bullet point on one \"level\", it\'s probably being used incorrectly.
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* BoringButPractical: English Longbowmen. Not especially great to look at, but until you get hold of some really late-game cannon units, they're unbeatable at range. They're also capable of planting anti-cavalry wooden stakes in front of them.
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* BoringButPractical: BoringButPractical:
** English Longbowmen. Not especially great to look at, but until you get hold of some really late-game cannon units, they're unbeatable at range. They're also capable of planting anti-cavalry wooden stakes in front of them.
** English Longbowmen. Not especially great to look at, but until you get hold of some really late-game cannon units, they're unbeatable at range. They're also capable of planting anti-cavalry wooden stakes in front of them.
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* SchizoTech: In the spirit of the Renaissance, many late-game armies will have high medieval archers and knights backed up with late medieval militiamen, arqubusiers and culverin teams.
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** England in general is this. They have a fairly standard mix of archers, spear levies, bill militia, and knights, but can kick ass with impunity.
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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Largely subtle. The presence of Finland in its modern shape with Helsinki as the capital is one example.
* RockBeatsLaser: Playing as the Aztecs (along with other Native American factions in ''Kingdoms'') can definitely give this impression. Especially since your likely enemies are heavily armored and brandishing swords, horses and guns.
* RunningGag: The two guards who are always there whenever you fail an assassination/infiltration/sabotage attempt.
* ScriptedEvent: ''Medieval II'' has five: the Mongol Invasion, the Black Death, the invention of gunpowder, the Timurid Invasion, and the discovery of the New World.
* StormingTheCastle: If you're a Catholic faction fighting another Catholic faction, you pretty much ''have'' to do this if your Papal favor isn't very high, lest you face excommunication next turn when you either don't lift the siege or assault the walls. This is, of course, why packing siege equipment with your army is always a good investment, so you can snatch the city/castle before the Pope gets noisy.
* SweetPollyOliver: Priests with the trait "Secretly Female". This raises her Piety rating, as she is so devoted to her faith that she would risk discovery and death for it. With careful maneuvering, you can even get her elected Pope! This actually reflects a medieval legend about Pope Joan.
* TemptingFate: The description of the Turks: ''"After all, how likely is it that an even more fierce and formidable race of nomads sweep down from the steppes?"''
* VideoGameCaringPotential: Pay your captured soldiers' ransoms and hear them sigh in relief and cheer, or free captured enemies to earn Chivalry points...
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: ...or refuse to pay for your underlings' failures and butcher captured foes so they may never oppose you again. Assassinate your own family members. Order your [[BrotherSisterIncest princesses to marry their brothers]]. Deny adopted sons and distant relatives freedom to marry in order to purify the bloodline. If the Pope excommunicates you, order him assassinated. [[RapePillageAndBurn Sack your neighbors' cities or exterminate the population]]. Order a Spy from a plague-infested town to spread his contagion through your enemy's empire as one final act of spite. Send [[UriahGambit units or family members you don't want]] in charges against vastly superior forces. Conquer and sack a city in the Middle East between two Muslim nations, sell it to the Papacy for a few thousand florins and watch the hilarity ensue. It's sometimes quite a bit harder to not be extremely cruel and effective than it is to become globally notorious and effective.
* RunningGag: The two guards who are always there whenever you fail an assassination/infiltration/sabotage attempt.
* ScriptedEvent: ''Medieval II'' has five: the Mongol Invasion, the Black Death, the invention of gunpowder, the Timurid Invasion, and the discovery of the New World.
* StormingTheCastle: If you're a Catholic faction fighting another Catholic faction, you pretty much ''have'' to do this if your Papal favor isn't very high, lest you face excommunication next turn when you either don't lift the siege or assault the walls. This is, of course, why packing siege equipment with your army is always a good investment, so you can snatch the city/castle before the Pope gets noisy.
* SweetPollyOliver: Priests with the trait "Secretly Female". This raises her Piety rating, as she is so devoted to her faith that she would risk discovery and death for it. With careful maneuvering, you can even get her elected Pope! This actually reflects a medieval legend about Pope Joan.
* TemptingFate: The description of the Turks: ''"After all, how likely is it that an even more fierce and formidable race of nomads sweep down from the steppes?"''
* VideoGameCaringPotential: Pay your captured soldiers' ransoms and hear them sigh in relief and cheer, or free captured enemies to earn Chivalry points...
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: ...or refuse to pay for your underlings' failures and butcher captured foes so they may never oppose you again. Assassinate your own family members. Order your [[BrotherSisterIncest princesses to marry their brothers]]. Deny adopted sons and distant relatives freedom to marry in order to purify the bloodline. If the Pope excommunicates you, order him assassinated. [[RapePillageAndBurn Sack your neighbors' cities or exterminate the population]]. Order a Spy from a plague-infested town to spread his contagion through your enemy's empire as one final act of spite. Send [[UriahGambit units or family members you don't want]] in charges against vastly superior forces. Conquer and sack a city in the Middle East between two Muslim nations, sell it to the Papacy for a few thousand florins and watch the hilarity ensue. It's sometimes quite a bit harder to not be extremely cruel and effective than it is to become globally notorious and effective.
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* VideoGameTime: The discrepancy between time scales and character aging. As ''Medieval II'' was built on ''Rome'''s engine, characters still age by one "year" every two turns (the same as in ''Rome''), but for balance purposes each turn lasts two years. Thus the impression that [[ThePiratesOfPenzance characters only turn a year older every four years]].
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: The AI never seems to learn. You'll be thrashing it, then either the Pope will make you stop or they will offer you a substantial amount of gold to let them go. Then a few turns later, they seem to forget this and attack you again. This can lead to several long and costly wars throughout the campaign. The AI in general is famously stubborn. At times, it will not even accept a ''gift'' of all the territories the player has seized in a war, and that is a ''gift'', with no ''ceasefire''.
* ZergRush: Zerging is a viable strategy against the Mongols and Timurids, too. When they first appear, they're just unsupported armies with no cities backing them up, which means that any Mongol or Timurid warrior you kill ''stays'' dead and cannot be replaced. Since by the time the Mongols show up you'll already have a strong empire that can take some losses, it's possible to simply keep sending waves of suicide armies against the Mongols and the Timurids to batter them down. [[WeHaveReserves You can replace your losses]]; ''they'' can't.
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: The AI never seems to learn. You'll be thrashing it, then either the Pope will make you stop or they will offer you a substantial amount of gold to let them go. Then a few turns later, they seem to forget this and attack you again. This can lead to several long and costly wars throughout the campaign. The AI in general is famously stubborn. At times, it will not even accept a ''gift'' of all the territories the player has seized in a war, and that is a ''gift'', with no ''ceasefire''.
* ZergRush: Zerging is a viable strategy against the Mongols and Timurids, too. When they first appear, they're just unsupported armies with no cities backing them up, which means that any Mongol or Timurid warrior you kill ''stays'' dead and cannot be replaced. Since by the time the Mongols show up you'll already have a strong empire that can take some losses, it's possible to simply keep sending waves of suicide armies against the Mongols and the Timurids to batter them down. [[WeHaveReserves You can replace your losses]]; ''they'' can't.
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* VestigialEmpire: The Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire, although it's possible to avert its fate in real life. Also notable in that while it has access to strong and outright formidable units early on (like the Cataphracts), it's almost wholly lacking in late game technologies and units.
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** TheRenaissance: ...before ending in the early 16rh century.
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** TheRenaissance: ...before ending in the early 16rh 16th century.
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* GovernmentInExile: Taking control of Rome and defeating the Pope will result in the immediate election of a new Pope, who generally appears right next to Rome with a sizeable army.
* TheHashshashin: Islamic factions can recruit them.
* HelloSailor: If you leave a general on a ship for too long, he can turn gay.
* TheKnightsTemplar: Not only do the original Templars show up, but TheKnightsHospitallers and TheTeutonicKnights make an appearance as well. It's random whether or not you get them (see the ThievesGuild example below), but to start, they'll approach you about setting up a small Chapter house in your province. Accept, and you can recruit from the order in limited numbers. If you're really lucky, the Grand Master will set up his order's HQ in your kingdom.
* LargeHam:
** Dreaded generals, regardless of nationality. ''"ORDAH ME NOT!!! I'M BUSY TORTAHING CAPTIVES!"'' Chivalrous ones as well, sometimes. ''"GOTT EHRE VATERLAND! TO BATTLE!"''
** When you send a priest to execute a heretic or witch: ''"MAY GOD EXPOOOOSE THE UNCLEEEEAAAN!"''
* MacrossMissileMassacre: Even before the formal invention of gunpowder, the Mongols in ''Medieval II'' have access to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwacha crude rocket launchers]].
* MercyRewarded: Releasing captives after a battle gives a general chivalry points, which help improve popularity and morale.
* TheHashshashin: Islamic factions can recruit them.
* HelloSailor: If you leave a general on a ship for too long, he can turn gay.
* TheKnightsTemplar: Not only do the original Templars show up, but TheKnightsHospitallers and TheTeutonicKnights make an appearance as well. It's random whether or not you get them (see the ThievesGuild example below), but to start, they'll approach you about setting up a small Chapter house in your province. Accept, and you can recruit from the order in limited numbers. If you're really lucky, the Grand Master will set up his order's HQ in your kingdom.
* LargeHam:
** Dreaded generals, regardless of nationality. ''"ORDAH ME NOT!!! I'M BUSY TORTAHING CAPTIVES!"'' Chivalrous ones as well, sometimes. ''"GOTT EHRE VATERLAND! TO BATTLE!"''
** When you send a priest to execute a heretic or witch: ''"MAY GOD EXPOOOOSE THE UNCLEEEEAAAN!"''
* MacrossMissileMassacre: Even before the formal invention of gunpowder, the Mongols in ''Medieval II'' have access to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwacha crude rocket launchers]].
* MercyRewarded: Releasing captives after a battle gives a general chivalry points, which help improve popularity and morale.
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* MilitaryMashupMachine: For a Middle Ages variant, there is the Timurid rocket elephant, an armored war elephant with a hwacha in the howdah. The description for it runs along the lines of "what sort of sick person would add a rocket launcher to an elephant?!" The Timurids also have cannon elephants. Who would do such a thing? [[http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Ditzie/meta Ditzamer Spofulam would.]]
* MultiMeleeMaster: If caught in close combat, pikemen will drop their spears and engage the enemy with side-arms.
* MultiMeleeMaster: If caught in close combat, pikemen will drop their spears and engage the enemy with side-arms.
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[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Medieval_II_Total_War_pc_9145.jpg]]
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** TheRenaissance: ...before ending in the early 16rh century.
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** TheRenaissance: ...before ending in the early 16rh century.century.
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* AntiCavalry: Spears as usual, but they have to be good quality spears. Heavy cavalry will just roll straight over militia spear units (unless they're Italian militia or in schiltrom formation; Heaven help the cavalry who try to charge an Italian spear militia in schiltrom formation) and you really need pikes or very heavy spears to guarantee bringing a cavalry charge to a grinding halt. Even then, a cavalry cycle might fail, but heavy cavalry will always be a problem for infantry if they are allowed to repeatedly charge them. Spears really come into their own as a counter if the cavalry can become bogged down. Certain archers also have an option to deploy stakes pre-battle, which can murder any cavalry that tries to cross them, but are immobile. If the archers need to relocate or the cavalry flanks them, they're useless.
* AnticlimaxBoss:
** The Mongols are scary as hell in the open field, and are hard to beat back. However, once they hit your cities or a defended bridge, their horse archers are just cannon fodder for your spearmen, archers, and crossbows. The Timurids on the other hand... there are a couple ways to defeat them at their own game in the field, but all require locking down their archers. And cavalry. Lots and lots of cavalry.
** The ''Britannia'' campaign in the ''Kingdoms'' expansion for ''Medieval II'' has William Wallace's army, which is presented as an enormous and impressively badass army, with fully-armed and armored and high experience troops. In a straight fight, they'd be tough to beat... except that Wallace himself is an infantry general in an otherwise normal unit of Highland Nobles. That means is that all it takes is one well-timed heavy cavalry charge, and....
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Longbows, crossbows, axes... it may be a good idea to keep a few unarmoured units around specifically because of the vast range of units who ''actually get a bonus'' fighting heavily armoured troopers. This is particularly problematic for nations who invested heavily in upgrading their soldiers armour via the various armoury buildings, as even their militia may be armoured in heavy mail.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** The AI in ''Medieval II'' will march a vast army straight across a narrow bridge at you if the battle takes place on one. All you have to do is position at your end of the bridge a pair of Mangonels which are catapults that lob barrels of oil that explode and rain hot death, or if you're lucky, explode on contact with the ground instead, right in the middle of a tightly packed formation of multiple troop divisions in a confined space. It is embarassingly easy to wipe out a 2000 man AI army this way as they keep sending their troops across the bridge until more than half of them die from the exploding barrels and the other half panic and rout.
** Horizontal-firing artillery is a bit of a liability. Ribault and bombard teams see no problem continuing to fire even when the general himself is standing four feet from the mouth of the cannon.
** Deploy your longbowmen's stakes behind the gates and watch as the enemy General comes charging through and impales himself, along with all the best cavalry in the opponent's army. This is most fun against the Mongols, since they will inevitably send all of their cavalry through. However, your own cavalry can suffer from this. If you order your cavalry to return back through the same gate (most likely after dealing with enemy catapults or archers), they will happily impale themselves on the stakes.
** If a Siege Tower is set alight after it reaches your walls but before the ramps drop, the units pushing it will ''still'' try to run up to your walls ''while the siege tower is engulfed in flames.''
* BonusBoss: The Aztecs could count as such. Their continent shows up late in the game with several full stacks of units guarding their territory, and unlike real life, those huge armies don't crumble as soon as you get a few horses and guns on the field with them. It helps that the game doesn't simulate their forces being ravaged by European diseases.
* BoringButPractical: English Longbowmen. Not especially great to look at, but until you get hold of some really late-game cannon units, they're unbeatable at range. They're also capable of planting anti-cavalry wooden stakes in front of them.
* CadreOfForeignBodyguards: The Papal Swiss Guard and Byzantine Varangian Guard.
* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Averted. The French are the bane of anyone playing the Moors or the Holy Roman Empire. They're always able to pull armies of elite heavy infantry out from nowhere and butcher your forces with ease, and they're very hard to counter early-game. They're also one of the most aggressive factions in the game, sending huge armies against Muslim factions during Crusades and waging war on neighbours for no reason at all.
* ChurchMilitant: The Pope is fully capable of leading armies into battle like any other king or general. But where a king or general is depicted in armour and a fancy surcoat and carries a sword with which to attack cities on the map, the Pope appears in full Papal regalia. When he besieges a city, instead of hitting it with a sword he hits it with his crucifix-topped scepter. If a faction falls out of the Pope's favour and gets excommunicated (or simply doesn't belong to the Catholic church), be prepared for Crusades to such far off lands as... France.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Possibly. A priest's Piety rating not only affects how good he is at conversion and killing heretics, it'll also protect him from assassins. That's right, in this game, quite literally JesusSaves (or Allah, for the Muslims). It's implied that he's so widely considered a saint that people don't dare attack him for fear of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Becket reprisal]]. It's also shown in assassination attempt cinematics that your agents travel with retinues of armed guards who may or may not stop your assassins. Since more pious priests would be considered more important, it can be assumed that their assigned bodyguards would be better and/or more numerous.
* CreepyCrossdresser: The "Foreign Fruitcake" who will sometimes join your generals' retinue. On one hand, it increases Dread, but it also decreases Authority, Command, Piety, morale, chance of having children ''and'' public order. A general without many other redeeming qualities who gains this retinue member can become totally useless.
* TheCrusades: Naturally, these play a major part in the game. Even if you're a Catholic faction that gets excommunicated, they can happen to ''you''. On the other hand, if you control the Pope, you can do this to others.
* DarkIsNotEvil: In the ''Kingdoms'' expansion, the super-intimidating Teutonic Order can also have Chivalrous generals.
* DeathFromAbove: The English longbowmen are pretty much the epitome of this. You'll be hard-pressed ''any'' ranged unit that can consistently cause as much damage at long range short of extreme late-game artillery units like the culverin. Longbowmen can get into shooting matches with multiple artillery units and consistently win. Taken even further in the ''Stainless Steel'' mod, where the longbowmen have range comparable to most artillery units. And in that mod, [[GameBreaker Scotland can use them, too]]. Given the longbowmen's historical successes, this is pretty much TruthInTelevision.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything:
** Nearly anything your generals do can earn them one form of trait or another. Have a general visit or become governor to a town with a brothel? He might pick up a trait about becoming a womanizer. Leave a general between cities at the end of a turn? Might gain a trait regarding logistics. Have a general regularly fight armies of a particular faction, and they'll earn a trait that has them ''hate'' that particular faction and get a bonus commanding against them. Hire mercenaries and get a mercenary captain in the retinue, visit a town with an artist's studio and the general becomes a patron of the arts, visit a region with high Pagan religion and get a pagan astrologer or magician in your retinue, and so on. This even applies to agents; for example, a diplomat from an area with majority of one particular religion will be religiously intolerant, while ones from mixed-religion regions will be religiously tolerant.
** If you're trying to get your cavalry back behind your front line, don't charge them through your bracing pikemen in shieldwall formation. They'll kill your cavalry just as easily as they kill the enemy.
* TheDreaded: A character can keep order with a high Dread rating. Dreaded characters lower the morale of entire enemy armies by their mere presence. This is very annoying when fighting the Mongols, who all have high Dread generals. Use Chivalrous generals to balance it up... or use a general of your own with ''even higher'' Dread to make the ''Mongols'' break first. With a general whose Dread is maxed out, it's possible to break an entire enemy army by simply ''charging them.'' You don't even have to hit them; simply charge the entire army straight at them, and there's a pretty good chance that the lower-morale units break immediately, starting a chain reaction of routing that sends the entire army fleeing. With your faction leader, if you push the Dread high enough and execute enough prisoners/exterminate enough populations, he'll end up with the moniker ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Lord of Terror."]]'
* EndOfAnAge: The ''Americas'' campaign for ''Medieval II: Kingdoms'' is essentially this for the Native American factions: you ''could'' successfully fight off if not outright force out the encroaching European arrivals from the New World...but life would never be the same.
* EnemyCivilWar: Catholic factions who have been excommunicated may suffer from widespread hostility from Papal loyalists, which can be seen as an Enemy Civil War from the perspective of any Muslim factions holding the Holy Land at that point. When the French are sending crusaders to Frankfurt, they're not sending them to Jerusalem...
* EvilPaysBetter: Instead of occupying a settlement with a minimum of fuss, you can choose to sack it, looting and tearing up the place while eliminating part of the troublesome population. In ''Medieval II'', this kills off lots of people, gives you the same amount of money as occupation, brings the settlements public order up a lot due to fear and a massive fall in squalor, and greatly reduces the value of the city. Some Middle-eastern factions can enslave the populace instead, which is functionally the same thing. It really depends on where you're attacking. If you're playing, say, Spain or England and are on a Crusade to Jerusalem with one or two armies, it might make more sense to invade cities along the way, massacre the populace, sack the town, destroy every structure in the city for money, and then keep on going without leaving any troops to garrison. The city will rebel and go into anarchy, but that's fine, because you're not there to take territory, you're there to pillage and plunder and destroy the faction you're crusading against.
* GladiatorRevolt: The ''{{Thera}}'' mod has this as part of the background for the Uruk Dominion.
* AnticlimaxBoss:
** The Mongols are scary as hell in the open field, and are hard to beat back. However, once they hit your cities or a defended bridge, their horse archers are just cannon fodder for your spearmen, archers, and crossbows. The Timurids on the other hand... there are a couple ways to defeat them at their own game in the field, but all require locking down their archers. And cavalry. Lots and lots of cavalry.
** The ''Britannia'' campaign in the ''Kingdoms'' expansion for ''Medieval II'' has William Wallace's army, which is presented as an enormous and impressively badass army, with fully-armed and armored and high experience troops. In a straight fight, they'd be tough to beat... except that Wallace himself is an infantry general in an otherwise normal unit of Highland Nobles. That means is that all it takes is one well-timed heavy cavalry charge, and....
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Longbows, crossbows, axes... it may be a good idea to keep a few unarmoured units around specifically because of the vast range of units who ''actually get a bonus'' fighting heavily armoured troopers. This is particularly problematic for nations who invested heavily in upgrading their soldiers armour via the various armoury buildings, as even their militia may be armoured in heavy mail.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** The AI in ''Medieval II'' will march a vast army straight across a narrow bridge at you if the battle takes place on one. All you have to do is position at your end of the bridge a pair of Mangonels which are catapults that lob barrels of oil that explode and rain hot death, or if you're lucky, explode on contact with the ground instead, right in the middle of a tightly packed formation of multiple troop divisions in a confined space. It is embarassingly easy to wipe out a 2000 man AI army this way as they keep sending their troops across the bridge until more than half of them die from the exploding barrels and the other half panic and rout.
** Horizontal-firing artillery is a bit of a liability. Ribault and bombard teams see no problem continuing to fire even when the general himself is standing four feet from the mouth of the cannon.
** Deploy your longbowmen's stakes behind the gates and watch as the enemy General comes charging through and impales himself, along with all the best cavalry in the opponent's army. This is most fun against the Mongols, since they will inevitably send all of their cavalry through. However, your own cavalry can suffer from this. If you order your cavalry to return back through the same gate (most likely after dealing with enemy catapults or archers), they will happily impale themselves on the stakes.
** If a Siege Tower is set alight after it reaches your walls but before the ramps drop, the units pushing it will ''still'' try to run up to your walls ''while the siege tower is engulfed in flames.''
* BonusBoss: The Aztecs could count as such. Their continent shows up late in the game with several full stacks of units guarding their territory, and unlike real life, those huge armies don't crumble as soon as you get a few horses and guns on the field with them. It helps that the game doesn't simulate their forces being ravaged by European diseases.
* BoringButPractical: English Longbowmen. Not especially great to look at, but until you get hold of some really late-game cannon units, they're unbeatable at range. They're also capable of planting anti-cavalry wooden stakes in front of them.
* CadreOfForeignBodyguards: The Papal Swiss Guard and Byzantine Varangian Guard.
* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Averted. The French are the bane of anyone playing the Moors or the Holy Roman Empire. They're always able to pull armies of elite heavy infantry out from nowhere and butcher your forces with ease, and they're very hard to counter early-game. They're also one of the most aggressive factions in the game, sending huge armies against Muslim factions during Crusades and waging war on neighbours for no reason at all.
* ChurchMilitant: The Pope is fully capable of leading armies into battle like any other king or general. But where a king or general is depicted in armour and a fancy surcoat and carries a sword with which to attack cities on the map, the Pope appears in full Papal regalia. When he besieges a city, instead of hitting it with a sword he hits it with his crucifix-topped scepter. If a faction falls out of the Pope's favour and gets excommunicated (or simply doesn't belong to the Catholic church), be prepared for Crusades to such far off lands as... France.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Possibly. A priest's Piety rating not only affects how good he is at conversion and killing heretics, it'll also protect him from assassins. That's right, in this game, quite literally JesusSaves (or Allah, for the Muslims). It's implied that he's so widely considered a saint that people don't dare attack him for fear of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Becket reprisal]]. It's also shown in assassination attempt cinematics that your agents travel with retinues of armed guards who may or may not stop your assassins. Since more pious priests would be considered more important, it can be assumed that their assigned bodyguards would be better and/or more numerous.
* CreepyCrossdresser: The "Foreign Fruitcake" who will sometimes join your generals' retinue. On one hand, it increases Dread, but it also decreases Authority, Command, Piety, morale, chance of having children ''and'' public order. A general without many other redeeming qualities who gains this retinue member can become totally useless.
* TheCrusades: Naturally, these play a major part in the game. Even if you're a Catholic faction that gets excommunicated, they can happen to ''you''. On the other hand, if you control the Pope, you can do this to others.
* DarkIsNotEvil: In the ''Kingdoms'' expansion, the super-intimidating Teutonic Order can also have Chivalrous generals.
* DeathFromAbove: The English longbowmen are pretty much the epitome of this. You'll be hard-pressed ''any'' ranged unit that can consistently cause as much damage at long range short of extreme late-game artillery units like the culverin. Longbowmen can get into shooting matches with multiple artillery units and consistently win. Taken even further in the ''Stainless Steel'' mod, where the longbowmen have range comparable to most artillery units. And in that mod, [[GameBreaker Scotland can use them, too]]. Given the longbowmen's historical successes, this is pretty much TruthInTelevision.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything:
** Nearly anything your generals do can earn them one form of trait or another. Have a general visit or become governor to a town with a brothel? He might pick up a trait about becoming a womanizer. Leave a general between cities at the end of a turn? Might gain a trait regarding logistics. Have a general regularly fight armies of a particular faction, and they'll earn a trait that has them ''hate'' that particular faction and get a bonus commanding against them. Hire mercenaries and get a mercenary captain in the retinue, visit a town with an artist's studio and the general becomes a patron of the arts, visit a region with high Pagan religion and get a pagan astrologer or magician in your retinue, and so on. This even applies to agents; for example, a diplomat from an area with majority of one particular religion will be religiously intolerant, while ones from mixed-religion regions will be religiously tolerant.
** If you're trying to get your cavalry back behind your front line, don't charge them through your bracing pikemen in shieldwall formation. They'll kill your cavalry just as easily as they kill the enemy.
* TheDreaded: A character can keep order with a high Dread rating. Dreaded characters lower the morale of entire enemy armies by their mere presence. This is very annoying when fighting the Mongols, who all have high Dread generals. Use Chivalrous generals to balance it up... or use a general of your own with ''even higher'' Dread to make the ''Mongols'' break first. With a general whose Dread is maxed out, it's possible to break an entire enemy army by simply ''charging them.'' You don't even have to hit them; simply charge the entire army straight at them, and there's a pretty good chance that the lower-morale units break immediately, starting a chain reaction of routing that sends the entire army fleeing. With your faction leader, if you push the Dread high enough and execute enough prisoners/exterminate enough populations, he'll end up with the moniker ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Lord of Terror."]]'
* EndOfAnAge: The ''Americas'' campaign for ''Medieval II: Kingdoms'' is essentially this for the Native American factions: you ''could'' successfully fight off if not outright force out the encroaching European arrivals from the New World...but life would never be the same.
* EnemyCivilWar: Catholic factions who have been excommunicated may suffer from widespread hostility from Papal loyalists, which can be seen as an Enemy Civil War from the perspective of any Muslim factions holding the Holy Land at that point. When the French are sending crusaders to Frankfurt, they're not sending them to Jerusalem...
* EvilPaysBetter: Instead of occupying a settlement with a minimum of fuss, you can choose to sack it, looting and tearing up the place while eliminating part of the troublesome population. In ''Medieval II'', this kills off lots of people, gives you the same amount of money as occupation, brings the settlements public order up a lot due to fear and a massive fall in squalor, and greatly reduces the value of the city. Some Middle-eastern factions can enslave the populace instead, which is functionally the same thing. It really depends on where you're attacking. If you're playing, say, Spain or England and are on a Crusade to Jerusalem with one or two armies, it might make more sense to invade cities along the way, massacre the populace, sack the town, destroy every structure in the city for money, and then keep on going without leaving any troops to garrison. The city will rebel and go into anarchy, but that's fine, because you're not there to take territory, you're there to pillage and plunder and destroy the faction you're crusading against.
* GladiatorRevolt: The ''{{Thera}}'' mod has this as part of the background for the Uruk Dominion.
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* AnnoyingArrows: It should be noted that it takes skill to use bowmen in Medieval 2 as the arrows are tweaked to do much less damage than in any of the other games in the series. It gets somewhat ridiculous when a peasant walks off the 10th arrow in a row like it was a friendly punch. Nevertheless, the sheer power of their archers gives England an absurd edge over its neighbours, thanks to their longbowmen coupled with reasonably strong cavalrymen and good infantry.
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An expansion pack, ''Kingdoms'' introduced four new campaigns in addition to the main European one: The Crusades, the British Isles, the Americas and the wars of the TeutonicKnights. These all focus on a smaller area than the main campaign, while providing greater detail.
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An expansion pack, ''Kingdoms'' introduced four new campaigns in addition to the main European one: The Crusades, the British Isles, the Americas and the wars of the TeutonicKnights.TheTeutonicKnights. These all focus on a smaller area than the main campaign, while providing greater detail.
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!!This game provides examples of:
to:
!!This game provides examples of:of:
* TheMiddleAges: As the title suggests, this game mainly takes place in this period.
** TheHighMiddleAges: The game begins in the late 11th century...
** TheLateMiddleAges: ...and continues through the 14th and 15th centuries...
** TheRenaissance: ...before ending in the early 16rh century.
* TheMiddleAges: As the title suggests, this game mainly takes place in this period.
** TheHighMiddleAges: The game begins in the late 11th century...
** TheLateMiddleAges: ...and continues through the 14th and 15th centuries...
** TheRenaissance: ...before ending in the early 16rh century.
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''Medieval II: Total War'' is the fourth instalment in the ''TotalWar'' series of strategy games. Like all the other games in the series, it features a mixture of turn-based strategy on a campaign map and real-time tactics on a battlefield. It is essentially a remake of the original ''Medieval: Total War'' with updated graphics and the more detailed campaign map introduced in its direct predecessor, ''Rome: Total War''.
As such, the player controls one of many kingdoms in medieval Europe, starting in the [[TheHighMiddleAges late 11th century]] (shortly before the First Crusade). The goal is to prevail over ones neighbours and carve out an empire to rival Rome. In addition to the lands covered in the first ''Medieval'', this game allows the player to discover America and face the mighty Aztec Empire while expanding his kingdom to the New World.
An expansion pack, ''Kingdoms'' introduced four new campaigns in addition to the main European one: The Crusades, the British Isles, the Americas and the wars of the TeutonicKnights. These all focus on a smaller area than the main campaign, while providing greater detail.
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!!This game provides examples of:
As such, the player controls one of many kingdoms in medieval Europe, starting in the [[TheHighMiddleAges late 11th century]] (shortly before the First Crusade). The goal is to prevail over ones neighbours and carve out an empire to rival Rome. In addition to the lands covered in the first ''Medieval'', this game allows the player to discover America and face the mighty Aztec Empire while expanding his kingdom to the New World.
An expansion pack, ''Kingdoms'' introduced four new campaigns in addition to the main European one: The Crusades, the British Isles, the Americas and the wars of the TeutonicKnights. These all focus on a smaller area than the main campaign, while providing greater detail.
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!!This game provides examples of:
