Total War: General discussion.

Here's a space for Total War discussion. I'm a big fan of the series, though unfortunately I'm stuck with a computer that can't play Medieval II or Empire, so I'm stuck with Medieval and a slow-running Rome.

I've actually rediscovered Medieval 1. The action moves a bit faster, which helps because I usually like to be into a good fight within the first few turns of the game. (I'm very much a dagger-rush player, taking my early army and beating down everything in my path.) I still like Rome, but I liked Medieval II better due to the action moving at a faster pace. I really need a PC that can run some decent games...

As for general tactics... strategically, like I said I'm a dagger rush player, mainly because I don't like my economy (and therefore my citizens) to suffer too much. I take my early army, put it together, and then hit the strongest guy I can find. You'd be surprised how well this can work, as most factions haven't gathered their armies at that stage. (The AI is a sucker for divide and conquer.) It works best in Medieval 1, but it works in Rome and Medieval II as well. You're likely to get stabbed in the back if you're too attack-happy in Shogun.

edited 27th Jan '10 8:55:18 AM by GameChainsaw

I have Medieval I, Rome, and the DV Ds of Medieval II.

I had Empire, but for some reason it is no longer read as installed, and I can't reinstall it!

For MW II, I've downloaded the Clouds Across Europe mod.

I just downloaded the XL mod. Medieval doesn't like new hardware.

Medieval keeps crashing. (I have to save every turn or else!) Any idea how to fix that? It used to crash non-stop until I made the resolution of the game match that of my desktop. You still see the desktop flickering beneath the game for a few seconds everytime the screen flips from menu to campaign to battle. Its happening more often too.

It doesn't like screens whose max resolution isn't 1024x768.

Doublepost: I'm working on a slight units and campaign mod. So far the modded Polish are awesome, taking a lot of provinces (okay, maybe three) from the HRE.

I have Rome, Medieval II, and Empire, though I don't play the third very much because it's on the family computer. All of them are pretty good, but I like Medieval II the best. Rome has a few things that annoy me. For starters, for some reason my economy starts to go flat and into the negatives (I had to give up my Scipii game and start over as the Julii because my treasury was in the negatives and I was quickly losing territory to revolts) and there's also the matter of CHARIOTS. I hate chariots with a passion, because they'll cut through your army and send them running in milliseconds. Empire's problem is the naval battles, because I'm not very good at those. Medieval II is the one I play most often.

I'm curiious, has anyone else here tried Rome: Total Realism aside from myself?

Me. Its... a lot harder than I anticipated. Things which worked extremely well for me (Like my usual early game dagger tactics) don't work nearly as well in the new game.

Anyone tried XL for Medieval?

^^ I didn't find it that much harder. I actually perfer Realism to the original. The Romans infantry doesn't become invincible towards the end in Realism the way it does in the original. Which is good for me since I like to play as the Macedonians or the Selucids.

Also, what are these "dagger tactics" of which you speak? They sound interesting.

Take your initial army, including all the weak "garrison units" you can get your hands on, pick the weakest nearby foe, and roll over them before they can get their boots on. Thats a dagger strike. Good if you start off with a large standing army and everyone else is weak, but it works even for smaller nations in the early game as the rest of the map hasn't consolidated their forces yet. (They still have forces scattered throughout the map.)

You can take out a seven-province enemy faction in about 15-20 turns if you do it right. A turn or two to get your army gathered and into the enemy territory, two turns per city to fall, assuming you can't get hold of siege equipment to speed things up, and give a couple of turns for reaching far away enemy provinces. It seriously helps if your opponent is on the same continent as you, its a pain if your army ends up stuck waiting for ships to arrive and carry you everywhere.

Strengths: One enemy out of the way quicktime, and a massive production and economic bonus, plus there's now a comfortable space between your capital and your foes in that direction.

Weaknesses: If someone else decides that you look tasty during this time, you can expect to get hammered while your soldiers are away. On top of that, while you get the extra money and troop production, here's the catch, you will usually end up with extra borders to defend, so if everyone decides to come straight after you, you'll probably take a beating before you can put the extra towns into effect.

The reason it doesn't work in Realism?

Granting citizenship. It takes forever in Realism, while in Vanilla Rome you could recruit from captured towns right away, you can't do that in Realism. So taking out one faction just leaves you with a weak production base, a battered army, lots of money, and usually some more enemies on your borders with a very good reason to come knocking on your doors.

So I started up a game as the Hungarians. Currently holding lands from Lorraine in the west to Moldavia in the east, and Saxony in the north to Serbia in the south.

So I started up a game as the Hungarians. Currently holding lands from Lorraine in the west to Moldavia in the east, and Saxony in the north to Serbia in the south.

So that's where your comment about that making a good opening came from.

And the best part? The HRE is nearly dead.

Nice work. The Hungarians aren't too easy to play as.

I've tried the XL. If you really want a challenge, try playing as the Khazars or, worse, the Armenians. If you really feel like putting yourself through hell, try the Khazars during the high period. (Just before the Mongols come rampaging in.)

Oh, that's certainly Harder Than Hard.

Actually, Hungary gets a good situation: Quite rich provinces, a well balanced army (a mix of Eastern missile cavalry and Western knights and infantry) and a lot of room to expand.

Urrgh... I've reached that point in Hard mode as the Sicilians where it's easy to defend, but really really hard to keep expanding. The Spanish and Byzantines are at war with me and it looks like I'm going to have to fight a naval war with the Italians, all while keeping the Egyptians at bay. Wasn't expecting the game to gang up on me that quickly. I'm still only the largest faction by one province, and other nations have larger armies than me.

edited 1st Mar '10 7:51:52 AM by GameChainsaw

Even my Hungarian game has reached that point. At this point only a few factions remain, and it's only the beginning of the High period.

Awwww, ETW appears to be uninstalled and I can't reinstall it. And I was doing so well as Prussia. Top prestige, broken Austria, conquered western Germany, positive cash flow...

I've reached a plateau in my Hungary game.

At least the Golden Horde's due in a few years... which would weaken the Byzantines.

Hows that campaign getting on Kinkajou?

I got Rome myself. It has the honor of being the only PC strategy game that I actually enjoyed playing. It was fun playing as the Germans and their almighty berserkers.

Rome was good, but personally I preferred Medieval II, and Medieval I was good in its own way as well. Its just a pity I don't have a stronger laptop.