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[Jackrabbit]

So yeah, Russia is awesome. I miss my Feudal Knights but their archers kick ass, and in cavalry form they are so much fun to use. Also, Poland is being a dick, refusing to surrender their last city. Dicks. And Hungary is being an idiot, besieging a well armed city within range of two others with two crossbow units.

I also like the way it looks when I've taken all of Russia. So much territory.

Anyway, since this is a Total War discussion thread and not limited to Medieval II, I figured I'd ask: Has anyone got Napoleon? Because it looks fantastic. And, are the city battles still removed like they were in Empire? I never got why they did that.

[Neruz]

Probably because the city battles have always been ass in the TW games.


I hated city battles so much, worst part of the game, the pathfinding boned itself up the ass with all the streets and stuff.

[Jackrabbit]

Yeah, I guess there's village battles? Those look cool.

The only game that had halfway decent sieges was Rome (actually, I loved them), because the streets were big enough. I have to agree with Aqizzar on this point; if they were willing to throw Egypt into a bin and recreate it in Rome, why the hell didn't they make the streets bigger?

[Neruz]

Rome had serious city fighting issues too, but they were somewhat exacerbated by the fact that phalanx type units like Hoplites were exactly the right size to fit down a major road.


Other unit types stil freaked out and got stuck, but that was fine, because the streets eliminated the one weakness of spearmen, and if backed up with archers made them pretty much unstoppable.




I won many a siege by just sticking a bunch of heavy spearmen in front of the gates and just letting them sit there and murderise the Compy's army.

[Jackrabbit]

But that's what made me love them so. Also it meant that if you were going up against any sort of hoplite based army you had to be clever, a novel experience to be sure.

[Neruz]

If by clever you mean the computer was dumb and didn't know that if it just parked archers on the walls and hoplites in the gates there was very little you could do about it then yes.

[Jackrabbit]

Nah, I just always use a fuckton of cavalry. And should I knock down walls on opposite sides of the city and get enough in, I am unstoppable because, yeah, the computer cannot comprehend the idea of you not coming at it head on.

So clever as in exploiting a bug, but still. Fun.

[Neruz]

Like i said, the AI is dumb.

[Jackrabbit]

Along those lines, Denmark needs to catch on soon and learn that I am not trying to be nice to them; I'm at fucking war with them. So when I disgorge a huge number of men from a particularly troubled settlement - that is to say, all of them - and then sell that settlement to them for a small price, I am going to take it back next turn and massacre everyone inside. I have done this to the same city four times. I had to stop exterminating them the second time, it would have reduced the place to a ghost town.

This is such a hilarious tactic.

[Aqizzar]

This is such a hilarious tactic.

No question that it's hilarious, but what exactly are you trying to do here?  You can only sack a town so many times before it has no wealth left to sack.  Maybe Denmark is so awestruck by your brutality and strength of arms that they're trying to appease you and not draw you to destroy them outright?

[Jackrabbit]

Oh, I'm aware there's a limit to this, I reached it the fourth time round. It's a good tactic for when you're suffering from religious problems, a handy little 'get out of revolution' free card. Also it pisses off my enemies and makes me 'despicable'. I'm trying to be as much of an asshole as I can be this time round. Can the Pope call crusades on Orthodox factions?

[Aqizzar]

Oh, I'm aware there's a limit to this, I reached it the fourth time round. It's a good tactic for when you're suffering from religious problems, a handy little 'get out of revolution' free card. Also it pisses off my enemies and makes me 'despicable'. I'm trying to be as much of an asshole as I can be this time round. Can the Pope call crusades on Orthodox factions?

If A Scotsman in Egypt is to believed, yes.  The Pope called a Crusade to take Toulouse, which was definitely not owned by the Moors.  I remember thinking that was pretty amazing, but I've never seen it myself.

[Neruz]

It does happen occasionally, i've never been able to reliably do it, but if you're really really terrible and constantly refuse to do what the Vatican says, eventually he'll crack the shits at you.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

I believe crusades are limited to non-christian factions. I wanted one on Constantinople in the last game I played as HRE, to give a nice big fuck you to the byzantines with crusade units and a giant army of death with no upkeep, but it didn't show up on the list. I did manage a pretty good initial attack without it, hitting them on every front, while fending off... Austria, I think it was, who was allied with me, and decided to attack me (which I saw coming do to setting up watch towers on its borders). I seized their capital with the peacekeeper forces in my nearby cities, what units I could recruit in a couple of turns near the border, and a small army that was being sent to reinforce the front of the war on Venice and was passing nearby, before the Pope could bitch me out for defending myself against a suicidal fuckwit and demand I make peace with them or face excommunication. >:|
The pope died less than a year later from a bad case of crossbow bolt through the face. Truly a tragedy, and one his next few successors suffered, too. However, in times of trouble such as those, it is only to be expected that the Pope wants strong backing, such as that given by a strong nation, who controls most of the cardinals. Pope's died like flies but loved me because I put them on the throne.

I was doing well, but I got sick of playing Medieval II, and later uninstalled it to make room for ME2 and some other games, no room to install it now, and no patience to wait through the hour it takes to install.

[Jackrabbit]

That LP... was there any creative liberties taken? I mean, apart from the portrayal of generals as rational human beings who won't charge straight into a fucking wall of spears because you explicitly told them not to?

Every time a general intentionally charges his horse into a purpose built anti-cavalry ten foot spear, I can't help but think "He's one alleged strategic genius who doesn't play by the rules!" and giggle.

Anyway, if the Pope can, I guess I can expect a crusading army up the backside within the next 30 years, because he is pissed with me. Funny story, actually. He recently called a (still going) crusade against Rome of all places. Turns out the Sicilians have no survival instinct.