Total War is a series of turn-based strategy games, mainly known for its real-time battles.
Medieval 2 is an entry into the series notable most for having the more modern mechanics of the later Total War games, but not the reduced modding support and the mutilated trait system that the later games have.
Stainless Steel is a mod that ups that trait system to a degree in a way that is only really surpassed by the super-mod
Europa Barbororum (which we are not playing because EB2 is still rather crash-prone and likely will be for quite a while.)
The Houses of the Land
"Look, my dears, all the lineages in the world (attend to what I am saying) can be reduced to four sorts. There are those that had humble beginnings and went on spreading and extending themselves until they had attained surpassing greatness,"
"and those that had great beginnings and maintained them and still maintain and uphold the greatness of their origin."
"Again, there are those that from a great beginning have ended in a point like a pyramid, having reduced and lessened their original greatness till it has come to nought, like the point of a pyramid, which, relatively to its base or foundation, is nothing."
"And then there are those--and it is the kind that are the most numerous--that have had neither an illustrious beginning nor a remarkable mid-course, and will have an end without a famous name, like an ordinary plebeian line." - Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes.
The most important part of this LP is the titular twelve houses, the idea being that we'll have twelve distinct houses in our empire which will add more continuity to the succession. Since Medieval 2 doesn't really track the dynasties of nobles after a couple generations the nobility feels completely unrelated and disparate, and this will hopefully fix it. This will be, unless someone decides to make a sub-mod, an out of game thing. Don't worry, you don't really have to participate in this if you play and you don't have to submit a report on the bloodlines after a turn either: I'm going to be keeping track of them myself.
The King's Choice of Treasure
Stainless Steel has quite few settings to choose from, and I don't really have strong opinions on any of them besides the eras and Grim Reality; because while GR adds quite a bit to the traits, it also adds in a system of banishment and punishment for the nobility which is quite arbitrary and unclear. I say we probably shouldn't use it, but I'm willing to use it if people really want to try it out. Just don't blame me when "the king" decides that a very good general has been a very bad boy and needs to be permanently relocated to sub-Saharan Africa.
The eras change gameplay and flavor quite a bit, to the point where I would like people to vote for one or the other. Do you want a progression from the rise of chivalry in 1100 to the "end" of chivalry in 1500... or do you want a progression from the height of chivalry to its "end" in warfare. The choice is yours.
As for factions, well, that kinda depends on which era we pick. Honestly, I'm fine with any of the non-horse archer factions. Horse archers are infamous in Total War games for a reason, and the AI of Medieval 2 has enough of a struggle keeping up with the player without them.
Houses, I will mention, don't need to be serious and... I'll even put this part in bold because it is very important:
do not need to have extensive backstories. We'll write them as we go along. I'm not opposed to origin stories, but the point of this LP is to make the history of the houses through our victories and failures in conquest and reconquest. What I don't mind is houses having house words or general characteristics associated with them, feel free to make those.
Here's a format so you can submit your choices easier
Settings:
Era:
Faction:
The houses we'll make after we pick an era and faction.
Author
Topic: Total War Medieval 2: Stainless Steel Succession LP - The Twelve Houses (Read 2936 times)