In the game Medieval II: Total War, you must lead 1 of 17 kingdoms to
total domination using trade, religion, espionage, alliances, and
military might to achieve this glorious victory. You start out with a
couple of factions first, but you must destroy other factions to unlock
them. Each faction has its strengths and weaknesses and units from
splendidly armored French Knights to Spanish Conquistadors. The game
commences in turns and each turn is 2 years. The game spans from 1080
to 1530 so there's 250 so turns.
In the beginning you start out with a number provinces with some as a
city or castle. You don't have to leave them like so, you can convert
it to the other. There is only a source of money, no food and building
supplies like other strategy games. You can adjust a tax rate in a
city, but not castle. Cities are for producing more money not military
and have higher populations. Castles produce military units, less
economy, and have less population. You must build necessary buildings
in order to recruit special things or gain bonuses like barracks are
for recruiting infantry units and farms give a better food production
letting cities survive longer in a siege. You will also receive
missions to do from the Pope or the Council of Nobles. You don't have
to do any of the missions, but if you deny the Pope he won't favor your
faction and inquisitors will sweep through your lands and trial your
generals and you may lose them if you don't have enough piety. One very
cool thing is that when you upgrade a soldiers armor it actually shows
a different image on the battlefield than its original stage.
Differentiation of soldiers is also in the game.
There are agents in the game like diplomats, spies, assassins, and
priests/imams. Diplomats are made to announce alliances or trade
rights, spies give information on armies and settlements, assassins
kill characters like generals, and priests/imams spread their countries
faith throughout lands and denounce heretics. Only the Papal States
have inquisitors.
When an army attacks another army or settlement a battle commences. At
the start of the battle you deploy your troops and then the fight
begins with your army clashing with another. The battles look
spectacular with cavalry slicing through enemy lines, sounds of
swooshing arrows, and the motion capture attacks and differentiation of
soldiers. Also music is constantly playing which sounds great.
The bad is that the game takes good system requirements to be stable
and even better to run smoothly. Naval battles you still cannot fight
in the game. You must auto resolve, but you can't help or anything.
Medieval II: Total War is an excellent game if you're a strategy game
fan, but make sure you have a good computer to run it. Check out the
gameplay videos for guides.
