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[Rakonas]

Hmm, where could one get this game reliably for free? Any recommendations?
I've never been a fan of the Total War series, as the strategy tends to be boring/unrealistic with horrible AI and the  tactics don't last for long as being fun. Basically I just want to try this lotr mod I have heard many good things about..

[Jackrabbit]

Hmm, where could one get this game reliably for free? Any recommendations?
I've never been a fan of the Total War series, as the strategy tends to be boring/unrealistic with horrible AI and the  tactics don't last for long as being fun. Basically I just want to try this lotr mod I have heard many good things about..

You could pirate it and TOADY DOESN'T LIKE THAT.

BUY THE GAME YOURSELF.

[Rakonas]

Hmm, where could one get this game reliably for free? Any recommendations?
I've never been a fan of the Total War series, as the strategy tends to be boring/unrealistic with horrible AI and the  tactics don't last for long as being fun. Basically I just want to try this lotr mod I have heard many good things about..

You could pirate it and TOADY DOESN'T LIKE THAT.

BUY THE GAME YOURSELF.

Piracy, you say? No, I didn't mean that! You simply misinterpret my query into where the best place to buy it is.

[Jackrabbit]

Well, the game's not free yet.

[jnecros]

Yes the world map, and all of the building of econ and what not is just back drop for the 'real' game. Total War is nothing if not a battle sim, everything else has been done, and done better in other games like Paradox's EU and HOI series, some might say Civ, though I did not like any of them. As expected playing against the AI in this or any other game is not a realisitc nor is it overly difficult, but this game sure is fun as hell and better with mods. The bottom line is if a battle sim sounds fun to you then shell out the 20 USD at Walmart or Amazon or someplace and try it out.

[Aqizzar]

Man, I got this game for $20 off Amazon after reading that kick ass LP "A Scotsman in Egypt" like Jackrabbit.  Only to find out that upon starting the game, you really can't play that game.  Scotland yes, but I had no idea you could see anything outside of the starting boundaries of the British Campaign map.  Or am I still right?

Basically, I find the battle simulations an exercise in pure frustration and eye-strain, and judging by the level of development of all the other elements (like the AI as people have described), the battles are the part that I'm supposed to like.  Naturally, I don't think I've ever gotten more than like 40 turns.

Also, the game takes up 15 gigs of harddrive space.  Until I get around to buying a new drive, that's unreasonable.

[Glacies]

I have a special place in my heart for France, MTW 1. I really enjoy the early game, unifying a fractured France under one banner. Limited resources and troops, war with the English, Germans looming to the east, FINAL DESTINATION.

Although Denmark is always fun as a one-province game. So's Turkey, if you declare war on both the byzantines AND the egyptians.

[Neruz]

probably, they just see me being rich and powerful, realise that since they are "easy" AIs they iwll never be as good as me, and decide to attack lemming-like.
I'll have to try playing on "hard".

Sort of, you're actually underestimating the Medieval II AI.

The AI is trying to pretend to be a king; if you play peacefully and sit there building up your infrastructure, the AI slowly loses it's 'respect' for you, if you spend too long being peaceful then the AI concludes that you are weak and helpless, and thus ripe for the pickings. Furthermore it can't 'see' into your territory, so it often doesn't know if you have huge numbers of troops (this is doubly worse because the AI has this annoying habit of almost never using spies, so it doesn't know how many troops you have at all.)


Basically, by playing peacefully you make yourself look like a weak and helpless target and you lose the respect of all the nearby powers. You need to go out and beat some kings up to ensure that you are not viewed as weak and helpless.

This is actually pretty realistic for the time period involved.

[umiman]

The AI doesn't really change according to your difficulty. It always just alters the level of cheating. Basically, it goes from "man, when will the enemy ever attack me" to "why the bloody shit does the enemy ALWAYS have 9 full stacks of units EVERYWHERE?!" It's good fun though, seeing 100 horsemen survive wave after wave of impossible odds. Patting yourself on the back for every victory, because they were insane.

But fighting the Mongols and Timurids on the hardest difficulty setting is crazy. You'll know what I mean if you've actually done it. Want to know what LITERALLY 10,000 arrows fired from 10,000 triple gold chevron horse archers look like? Fight Mongols on hardest difficulty. So fricking unfair. They bloody bring rockets and heavy mail when you barely even have trebuchet technology. I remember them spawning (during the mongol invasion event) with 20 stacks moving as one unit, each with perfect stat generals. Still fun though, if your computer can handle that many troops on screen.

There are a lot of mods that claim to improve the AI's intelligence, but I've never really seen anything too impressive. What I just do is pretend those were medieval strategists doing their thing (which makes sense), where most of the people of the time were meagre in the intelligence department, but once in awhile you come across a really strong foe.

It's worth noting though, that in my time playing it online, actual players are generally stupider than the AI... so... Yeah, take of it what you will.

[jnecros]

Mods exist that alter the battle Ai, and yes the world map AI recieves cheats only, as it does with increased difficulty. Some mods add a garison script, adding troops to an AI city in the event of a siege. But yes, free upkeep for units and cash if they go bankrupt. Of the mods that 'fix' battle AI, what they do is make the computer choose more logical manuvers and formations, they will try to flank and charge from the rear for one thing, but overall, most of the AI tweeks in a battle again consist of giving bonuses of stats and morale to units. Some modders have worked out better pathing, which helps a lot, otherwise fighting in the streets in the stock game sucks, frankly even after the tweeks it still sucks, just not as badly

[de5me7]

my main frustration with the total war is the way they've slowed each conssecutive game down, and made the AI worse. Beating an army of almost any size from a defensive position on Medieval 2 is way to easy due to a bug in the AI. essentually if you stick your forces on a hill, the enemy will arange them selves in a line and come to meet you. When they reach the bottom of the hill, the AI appears to do a calculation, can it assend the hill and defeat you. If yes it will advance and battle ensues. If your army is even remotly good, it will just sit at the bottom of the hill and wait whilst your archers shoot their entire army to bits. Ive defeated armys over a thousand strong for losses less than a hundred due to this. I think they may have sloved this issue in the gold edition version but in the originial it sux.

My other bugbear is the AIs complete inability to make diplomatic evaluations. Most of your allies will attack you as soon as they can, whether it is actually benificial to them or not. I presume this was included in the game to make it more challenging, but it is just retarded.

The timarids and the mongols represent the main challenge of the game, usualy when i play one of the them conquers half the map, and htey are the real battle. Most of the other enemies are relativley easy. The easiest way to beat the tumorisds or mongols in a siege of castle with more than one wall. Put all your men in the inner wall. The enmey usualy only bring one siege ram. they use this ram on the first gate and then abandon it. If they dont have any cannons with them they cannot get through the second gate, and so just sit at the bottom of your walls whilst you shoot them.

p.s. occasionally they retrieve the ram and use it on the second gate but not often

[jnecros]

There are methods of stopping the AI allies from attacaking via mods, but if I recall correctly you may not attack them either, which obviously can be a problem. As far as The Mongols being the only challange, I would try out a few major mods, like Broken Crescent, which is the standard edition mod, does not need Kingdoms, and you will find other rivals who are very dangerous, depending on who you start as, Georgia for example has a very hard starting position.

The key issue I have with Battle AI is the basic math that the enemy does, if they out number you they come towards you, if not they will camp out at the starting location making you waste time and energy just to get there to wipe them out.

I have not seen many AI seiges that lack several rams, ladders and towers, but I never play without mods and always play on hard or very hard.

[Akigagak]

I feel like doing a hideously complicated LP/succession for Rome, where the save changes hands when the faction leader dies, and generals are named after people who want them.

[jnecros]

I like that idea Akigagak, I personally prefer Rome: EB though, not sure if enough folks would be willing to make use of a mod for this.

Oh and no save scuming and hard/hard or vh/vh, of course.

[Akigagak]

Of course.

But I don't really have the time.