In a perfect alternate universe somewhere, Paradox got infused with creative assembly. The paradox team worked on the campaign maps, the C.A. team on the battles. Everyone was happy, the girls prettier, the drugs cheaper, no wars no worries, only good total war games and Eipstein actually killed himself.
Not quite a total war tie-in, but there was a mod for Crusader Kings 3 that lets you launch a battle in Mount and Blade:Bannerlord whenever you want instead of the standard CK3 battles. I have no idea how they got it to work together, it feels like magic. All of the troop types from CK3 that you have (light infantry, light cavalry, bowmen, etc) all show up as units under your command (scaled down in number but still in the proper ratio with your enemy's units), your character gets Bannerlord traits based on your character in CK3 during the fight, etc. Truly incredible modding.
Two of the features I miss most are troops visually changing with tech upgrades, and lower-tier ranged infantry having worse accuracy instead of just lower damage. Both really helped with immersion as you moved to higher tier troops. Great overview!
Another big feature I miss is the limited recruitment pool. It adds an interesting layer of balancing and can diversify your armies much more organically than unit caps.
I miss the old building system, being able to build everything everywhere so long as you spent enough time and gold. That and the visual changes of the units as their gear got better.
@@1nuke4you3 no, in Medevil 2 mobile. Click on your faction banner/flag/shield at the left corner. Go to the list of settlement. You will see there is an "eye" icon at the settlement picture. Click on it and you can view your settlement
It says a lot about a game, that even after almost 20 years I can remember a playthrough I had on m2tw. A Scottish Prince who I sent on a crusade, got trapped in the ME, won countless battles but eventually Egypt with sheer numbers eventually decimated my army before I could escape to safety and he was killed, and it still grates with me. Such an awesome game this was/is.
I was scottland and i had like 30 generals that cost me money. So i got a ship and maxxed it out with them, then sunk it and watched the Animation of like 12 generals dying xD
Maybe 10 years ago I decided to play as Spain. I’ve played every historical total war since medieval 1 when it first came out. But this play through I’ll never forget. I wanted to be a good Christian crusader but the pope and France didn’t like my Spaniard ways. I was forced to etch my way north to survive. Once I became strong enough I said to hell with the pope and took all of Europe. Since I had come this far I said “fuck it” and conquered the entire world on the hardest victory. I’ll never forget that.
I love the tension of the Mongol invasion, especially playing as the Russians. With no units that can directly compare to them, and just hopelessly throwing armies at them in the hopes of stalling. Med 2 brings the kind of fear that you can’t really get from many other turn based games.
@@litboi7570 The thing is that Medieval 2 is perhaps the Total War game where cavalry was at its strongest. So imagine an entire faction that shows up with death stacks where a majority of their troops were cavalry. There's that and if the Mongols find a settlement to settle down and live long enough, they can produce some serious artillery firepower if they develop their settlements.
@@Scientist118 Cavalry in Attila is a lot deadlier, you can rack up like 500-600 kills regularly with 1 cavalry unit in Attila no problem, in Medieval TW best strategy against Mongols is to defend settlements and bottleneck in the streets, cavalry in Medieval 2 is basically useless if it cannot cycle charge and even cheap spearmen puts them down if they are stuck in melee
The thing with medieval 2 is that it makes you feel the world is changing constantly for me, a fan of the history total war games, the events are a huge reason that I love this one so much. Also every time I play I find new things for example this year I learnt that you could marry a princess to the general to conquer a city easier. There are tons of ways to weaken your enemy and when you use all of them in a single campaign for me at least it feels like the peak rts experience.
@Luke Kerrell For example if you marry her to a general who is in a city with a small amount of troops you can hire mercenaries and conquer the city. It really helped me in the brittania campaign. I was Wales and had defeated England and wanted to defeat Scotland next but there is a small passage where my soldiers couldn't go through because there was a city with a massive army. I had to get to the cities behind the passage which had less troops to weaken them economically so instead of using ships I sent my princess to marry a general who I then sent to get the weaker cities which allowed me to overwhelm the big one.
One thing that I liked about Napoleon was that it added external buildings/ towns you could raid. They weren't cities, but by raiding them you could still damage the enemy without having to assault the city.
One thing I liked about medieval II was when you fight you can pick the terrain and it'll actually show in the battle phase. For example you chase an enemy army towards the ocean when you finally battle them in the battle map you'll see an ocean behind the enemy army. In the other total wars it just like random generates the battle map.
As a TW fan starting from the first Shogun, I totally agree. One thing you didn't mention - absolutely amazing mods this game has. Stainless steel, which expands the vanilla experience. Warhammer, which is on par with modern CA games. And my absolute favorite of all times, Third Age, the best strategic experience you can have in a world of Tolkien.
If you want, in my opinion, one of the best base game enhancements there is also Kingdoms Grand Campaign mod that expands the European map and adds in Kingdoms DLC factions, like Norway lol, with only the Americas being left untouched but the base game America regions are still present with the Aztec Empire. Just wanted to add it to your list.
@@olegchernyak1741 I've played the kingdoms grand campaign mod its definitely worth a play if you can find all the files have to go to 3 different sites usually had to do same to get third age working cause ents, wolves and spiders was crashing it but twcenter had a file to fix it
If you've never heard of Divide & Conquer, a standalone submod of Third Age, it's an amazing submod which fleshes out the entire mod, more settlements, more factions, more units, all with high quality models and descriptions. They are even working on Version 5 right now which will add a Reunited Kingdom script to all the Dunedain factions. Arachir Galudirithon on YT used to be the mod head and has made many playthroughs if you want to check it out.
I love the way the Warhammer mod changed the economy system. It really feels like you're squeezing your peasants from all their worth while throwing every single penny and manpower you can spare into the war machine. Also the constant threat of orcs, ratmen, vampires and heretics looming near your borders . It felt more like the actual Warhammer Fantasy world than in the official Total War: Warhammer.
Am I the only one who loved M2tw's army movement in battles? When you order a unit to move, the soldiers moved individually and sometimes even disorganized, of course unless the unit is on a formation, but if not they move individually. I loved thay detail because later total war formations feels....robotic. they just don't break formation when moving around, and they move too fast it's immersion breaking.
DUDE YES!! NTW have a lighter version of this too, especially with cav unit. It starts from the officer in middle and then ripples to the wing, that IS COOL. Sometimes Infantries managed to do this too, flagbearer and officer leads the march while rankers follows their pace. What triggers them I still have to find out, but they appear often in chaotic after-volley or after formations.
I actually find that annoying especially if they're still moving disoragnized while the enemy is doing a cavalry charge towards them. I imagine that's what medieval era generals think when that happens in real life. I do enjoy it, its just a little terrifying. I lost entire battles because of that.
Every 1-2 years I am compelled to re-conquer the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire. Such a great game, nothing TW made since has been quite on par, in my opinion
The only reason people hate on Medieval 2's Vanilla game play, is because it has the most varied and best mods of any total war game, and any strategy game besides mount and blade warband. The excellent base that vanilla provides though is the reason so many modders chose to work on medieval 2.
@@ernimuja6991 you mean the diplomacy bug? I was playing it yesterday and realized that the characters don't age correctly, i will look into mods to improve the game.
@@striker3727 The reputation bug. If you decide to spare a city it is supposed to increase reputation by 2 I think, instead it defaults to -2 which is as bad as executing everyone. The best choice is -0.5 which is sacking so players constantly lose reputation and ai hates them for no reason. Is that the bug you are taking about?
Nah, it's old and clunky. The TW Warhammer games are a lot more dynamic in scope, more variety, better graphics and strategically deeper. There's a reason why almost everyone is playing it. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project.
I personally feel MTW2 wasn't the trendsetter by itself- almost every mechanic that excels in MTW2 originated in Rome. So I still have to give the throne to Rome Total War, but it's by a hair's breadth. I love them both and always will.
rome 1 did have a lot of the features medieval 2 had, but Medieval 2 just did most of them better. Siege battles in rome 1 are beyond atrocious, especially with larger settlements.
@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 That's true, MTW2 refined most of the RTW features, but the leap from MTW1 to RTW was IMO the biggest leap in the series. It's practically a different game type to go back to MTW1- RTW has most of the mechanics that are recognizable all the way up to TWWH3 and TW3K.
@@JB-xl2jc oh yeah, definitely. Im just saying that medieval polished and improved on a lot of the RTW concepts, though there were parts of RTW that i missed going into medieval 2.
@@walmartian422 nah, Medieval 2 kingdoms did it decently. the AI actually attacks multiple points of your defense (most of the time), and the pathfinding mostly works.
Storm clouds gather of over Europe. That one phrase is burned into my very soul by now. I also love the Medieval 2's city building, because it's far more accurate, as up unto the Industrial Revolution, cities generally tried to be as completely self sufficient (which considering the horrifyingly reality of trade at the time, made sense.)
I haven’t played Medieval 2, but I have played Napoleon and Fall of the Samurai, and I’ve always thought that having the ability to develop whichever city you choose into a tactically important location would work miles for the campaign experience
Two points I would like to add off the top of my head: 1. Moding! The amount and depth of mods that are available for this game is immense! When Warhammer Total War came out I couldn't afford it, but I did not care as I was able to play a more complete mod in MTW2. Amongst a grand variety of other mods that I sank weeks into each! 2. Descriptions. This goes for Rome as well. I miss being able to right-click on a unit/building card and reading the simple description that popped up, the current "wiki" method is slow and horrible & I don't get good descriptions if any at all.
The thing that makes medieval 2 better then all newer titles, is the ability to completely mod the campaign map. So many total conversions out there which multiple the replay ability by a 100 fold.
Exactly, this is partially why I desperately want a remaster. Imagine the possibilities with an updated engine and restrictions lifted, like with Rome Remastered.
@@AndysTake Please no, not a remaster. We want a completely more in depth game on the most modern version of the engine. Bigger map, bigger graphics, bigger battles and much more intricate management and diplomacy.
@@mezjean5966 The next historical title after WH series wraps up with all its planned DLC releses and balancing patches after said releases, will need a completely new engine built from scratch. Hopefully they do this, and not be cheap and reuse FotS or ToB/Rome 2 engines. Otherwise I am not interested, even if its a new historical title with new "features and mechanics", fuck that. Another iteration of a game you've play for thousands of hours? Boring, and a greedy cash grab. Not to say work wouldn't be put into it, or passion, but if they want to keep the veterans that made their company what it is, they need to build a new engine for the next historical. Again, I do not want a cut and paste with just different names and models for factions/Kingdoms. They did that with Troy(I know its a "saga" and not streamlined CA), and they did it for 3 iterations of WH. Foolish enough at the time to buy every single DLC there is for WH1 and 2. WH3 for $20? worth it to me for the mega campaign. But it would still feel like a jab to the gut, seeing how it's been the same game but with just different factions and heroes added, and focus on balancing for multiplayer. Total War is and always will be, predominantly played single-player. Anyhow, I hope this isn't received as an affront, I'm just speaking my two cents.
I remember playing this as my first Total War game. Its imperfect, as a staunch ally can decide to attack you just because a town that borders them is underdefended. Yet they'll never accept peace despite losing a war because they just hate you that much. This is fixed better in Shogun 2, where most allies will stick with you as long as they're not boxed in, and enemies will be happy for a peace treaty once their armies are defeated. Although this game allows you to upgrade your experienced troops in towns with better buildings as you build better stuff, and Shogun 2 doesn't allow for that. So there are pros and cons.
Nah, it's old and clunky. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project. Warhammer III all the way!
Something I would really love is to have a proper citadel within a city. It just feels so weird that you have to demolish an entire city if you want to set up a fort. Instead it would be cool for settlements to grow outside of existing forts and to be able to add a citadel to an existing city. I've only really played Medieval II so I dunno if this already exists in other games from the franchise.
I totally agree with everything you said in the video. Medieval 2 total war is my favorite strategy game of all time. After all these years, I am still playing regularly one or two campaigns every year...
Nah, it's old and clunky. The TW Warhammer games (or games like Shogun) are a lot more dynamic in scope, more variety, better graphics and strategically deeper. There's a reason why almost everyone is playing it. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project.
This is one of my favorite games of all time, but there are some aspects that annoy me First, the way the a.i. uses siege equipment. They will literally hold back and fire at your walls until they're out of ammo, and it takes forever, even on 6 times speed. By turn 30 everybody has ballistas and catapults, making siege defense less fun, and more of an annoyance, in my opinion. Second, random nations will start wars with you for absolutely no reason, by blockading one of your ports for one turn, and then leaving. It usually happens when you're not at war with anybody, and you're making a lot of money from trade. And sending diplomats is pointless. 9 times out of 10 nobody who starts a war with you will ever accept a peace offer, no matter how much you try, or what you offer them, because there is a bug in the diplomacy system, that makes everyone hate you with searing passion eventually. Allies will turn on you and gain nothing from it. Speaking of bugs, there is a known issue with two handed weapons, which makes most two handed units almost worthless. Dismounted Gothic knights should be one of the best units in the game, but instead are one of the worst because of this. And it's not even an actual bug, it was a design choice for balance, and was just never corrected. Turkish janissaries are notoriously bad because of this flaw. Lastly, the plague. The event itself is fine. It only lasts a few turns, affects everybody and is easy to recover from. The problem is the a.i. will occasionally "cheat" with it. I had one city (Bruges or Antwerp) with plague for almost 30 turns, long after every other city had recovered. And of course my king was there with one of my best armies. They were whittled down to be almost useless, and I couldn't move my high authority king without spreading the plague, or move the army out for fear of revolt. There didn't seem to be any reason for this, other than the a.i. didn't want me to have that army, or move my king. It hasn't happened before or since, but it apparently does happen, and it's incredibly annoying. An honorable mention, the mongols and timurids seem to choose their spawning location based on where the player is, and start heading straight for you, even though they shouldn't even know where you are. I may be imagining this, but it seems to happen in almost every game. I sometimes avoid taking any territory in the M.E. or Russia, because I like to focus on fighting other normal factions, rather than fighting off 12 full stack armies of overpowered horse archers. There is also no Ghengis Khan or Tamerlane, which is just disappointing.
1. you take a unit outside and they will engage you, ending the artilery siege. 2. Yeah I agree, especially on the VH/VH campaign. Diplomacy is the weak point of m2t2 3. Never knew, and I love janissaries? what is the bug? 4. I think this is just your bias. 5. Not true. In my last two campaigns, as byzantine and egypt, they both times spawned on the russian side, conquering kiev. It also happened many times in the past, because I remember being happy for them going the side oposite of minel.
@@Dri143 I used to try to stop artillery sieges that way but usually if you don't destroy every piece, they will just continue the bombardment. It usually ends up costing me a unit, so I only do it now if the artillery is exposed, and there isn't that much of it. But, it does work sometimes. As far as the two handed weapons thing goes as far as I understand it's about attack speed. And it effects two handed swords the most. If janissaries work well for you, then that's awesome. But it's been my experience that they can't win against a lot of other heavy infantry. But then again, their stats aren't as good as most Dismounted knights, so it's probably more that than the bug. The plague thing is currently happening again in my latest campaign as Egypt. My king is in Antioch, and the plague simply will not go away. I even have good amount of health related buildings there. But now that I think about it, the issue is probably plagued spies or something, so my bad on that. During this Egypt campaign, the mongols spawned in the south, but ended up going north to Kiev anyway. I was shocked. The Tims are currently attacking Baghdad and Mosul, but at least I didn't have to deal with it twice. In conclusion, I take back most of what I said. But at least I was right about diplomacy.
Another thing that I miss in the new titles are the mods. Medieval 2 has the best mods from any CA game, and it's a shame that they never bothered to allow such things again.
Med2TW was a great game, with great replayability and features that, for its time, made it a true masterpiece. I believe that CA is unlikely to reach such levels in this new decade, at least with their current mindset... For the moment we have to 'settle' for the mod for Attila, a great work on another great game, but certainly not comparable to this old legend title.
Play rome total war remastered with chivalry total war mod, and you'll basically have an updated version of medieval II:total war that runs on modern hardware.
Yeah, for it's time. But now it's just old and clunky. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project. The TW Warhammer games are a lot more dynamic in scope, more variety, better graphics and strategically deeper. There's a reason why almost everyone is playing it.
I heard about Medieval 2 a couple years ago and decided to give it a shot. It can be a very stressful and confusing game at times (I still struggle with public order and economy tanking on the latter portion of my playthroughs) but it is also one of my favorite games ever. Only true gripe I have with this game is how the AI can be extremely biased against you. Spies and assasins will generally screw up every single time even with really good success rates and you can work tirelessly to gain favor from the pope but when another Christian faction attacks you for multiple turns he'll say absolutely nothing yet the second you retaliate he won't even give you a turn before demanding you to cease hostilities and threatening you with excomunication.
I love this game. Currently playing this on my phone. In my Denmark campaign. I got into a rather intense war with the HRE early on and I beat them hard(though not hard enough regrettably). I conquered almost every port in the Baltic Sea(the Poles are my ally so I allowed them to keep their port). Got into a brief fight with the Mongols over the city of Riga which, in hindsight maybe I should have let them keep it. In the middle of all of that, I spammed as many priests aw I could to the point that there was 11 Danes as the Cardinals allowing me to control the church(for a while). Then I decide to try and restore the North Sea Empire because I'm a history nerd so I gathered all but one of my armies to invade England. That got me excommunicated and while most of my army are in England ending British careers, the Pope called a crusade on Riga which triggered every Catholic city, including all my allies, to declare war on me. I'm sending assassins to kill the pope because fuck that guy.
Some factions have access to pikemen, and while they don't carry shields, there are guides to stack em and recreate the effect- it just takes micro intensive work/focus to keep them effective at stacking more expensive unit bodies as time goes on. To that end it's also important to try learning how to effectively implement self sufficient units like skirmishers or defensive formations that can carry on other fights nearby while being ignored, allowing such focus.
3:28 100% agree 11:29 medieval 2 has the best cav charges, no one can deny it. Amazing gunpowder and cannon sounds. Perfect artillery reloading. It's just amazing! And the scripting killing blows are not broken like Empire! 13:20 So true, way better than Shogun 2.
Following the cycle that CA had with Rome Total War, I have very little doubt that we'll see a Medieval II remastered, especially now that the mobile version of Medieval II has released. Depending on how Medieval II does, seeing that Rome Remastered did well, I have hope for a Medieval III as they may be laying the groundwork for that.
I thought empire was the most interesting total war. They managed to incorporate black powder weapons well, and the unit variety throughout the map was wild. My British Indian line infantry made their way all the way across the America's.
It's a really good experience on its own grounds, but it suffers from a lot of poor choices and issues. Like after going from Empire to Napoleon, I immediately gravitated towards the stronger design and gameplay but couldn't help but long for the vast scale of Empire.
I'm loving playing the Americas campaign as the Spanish, gradually conquering the New World piece by piece, and gradually discovering this new strange world piece by piece, battling the Aztecs with your own native allies who outnumber your own Spanish Conquistadors.
Total War: Attila had so much potential becoming great but the thing is it was too chaotic in which you would easily get lost if you're a new player. If you start a game there is more than 70 kingdom/clans so if you pick any of weak kingdom on eastern Europe you will get mad how many nomadic tribes are rampaging your lands and they will keep coming
What was not to like? Great evrionments, battles and sieges (compared to others), great unit animation in using swords, axes, bows and artillery, and sometimes perfect in cavalry charges,... You could even see the improvements of the armory on your units. The speeches of the generals were cool, sometimes hilarious or totally out of control (First we play with swords, and then...we play with swords with their women...or something similar) A lot of things happening: crusades, Mongols, Timurids, the black plague, the great drowning of men, invention of gunpowder, take caravels to the New World... You could go for a benevolant ruler or the most harsh person, send out priests to manipulate the papal election, take out merchants with yours, and what about the many cutscenes for a royal wedding ,but certainly for assassins out to kill merchants, princesses, generals, or even the pope. The only thing missing was the possibility to manually fight sea battles.
This will be the greatest remaster ever, a single huge map as detailed as each of the expansions but combined into one, AND more additions, better graphics but nothing OTT, better optimization, 40 unit per army option
I never stop playing this masterpiece every 6 or 10 months since 2006. I wish medieval 3 would take this game and improve all the things that needs improving like diplomacy.
At it's time, Medieval 2 Total War was really well-balanced in its graphics and aesthetic, but also found a pleasant middle ground between realism and a gamer friendly color-code. Sound, music and voice-acting the video already mentioned was on point. Well, like another UA-camr once said ... and RTS stands for real-time strategy, but a good RTS stands for real-time sandbox. Most Total Wars after M2TW aren't a sandbox experience anymore, but play out more like a scenario and the creators dictate you the pacing and steps you must take. You can see this in any aspect of the game, be it city management, diplomacy, agents, recruitment etc. In M2TW you had really little specification to think about. You could choose between cities and castles freely, what to build and when. The only thing the game didn't allow you was to build a harbor without a coastline or mines without specific resources. Factions were only differentiated by their unit rooster and some slight tweaks in what buildings would be available. Mechanic vice, most things were the same. Even Shogun 2 Total War already broke with this. The cities already had a slot system and a sup-village with a specific resource you could exploit... which was things from food to agents ... to harbors ... on an island nation yeah. I know from a realistic point of view, you can't just slap a harbor on any part of the coast without mayor risk for anybody involved ... but yeah. Diplomacy is always a bit lackluster in most TW games, I guess three kingdoms had the best so far? Rome 2 Total War is a mess ... it's all about conquest... who cares about city management? Slots! Who cares about diplomacy? Bias AI! Aesthetics? GRAPHICS! Attila Total War puts the scenario before the gameplay. Everything going wrong? Well, so do you! Have some railed events and feel bad. Thus, everything has to be darker and gray because scenario! Don't let me talk about the Saga games, that a clearly even more focused on a specific scenario that you have to play how the developer intended to ... To be fair, they did try to play with new game mechanics, but it's sadly it's mostly a single aspect and everything else is even more cut short to rail the experience. Three Kingdoms was a step in the right direction, but wanted to appease too many people at the same time? Well, The War Hammer games just work. I guess from the setting, you would think it's just one huge scenario you have to play out, and you would be right. But it's just so sandboxy enough that you roll with it. Most aspects fit the intended purpose, and nobody who plays skaven would even start to complain about the lack of diplomacy with other factions ... which actually is still there with a few. Orcs? Why would I care to build up rubble. Empire? Having a strife between? Ah, we can deal with it. Kislev? Sure, we ride bears, who wouldn't? War Hammer total War is all about the rule of cool and that's it... it just works. So yeah... well at last you could mention Empire total War and Napoleón Total War which both tried out a new age and actually had some interesting ideas. But I guess they really tried too hard and missed the point where grand strategy is a bit more than just plain board of risk.
One thing i hated though was having to deal with the Timurids. Just unnecessarily ridiculous and honestly a buzz kill. Half of the fun was the Middle East but I find myself avoiding it because I know the timurids are going to come and just mess everything up. Other than that hands down one of the best games of the series and I love it even today.
Personally, I like the vast majority of factions in this game. A couple of standouts for me are: Venice, Milan, HRE, Scotland, Hungary, Russia, Moors and Egypt. I love Venice and Milan (and shoutouts to Sicily) for being Italian factions that show off a flavor of European culture and military that is often unsung compared to others and, being part italian myself, I like kicking ass with my heritage factions. The HRE (also known as the Holy German Fustercluck in my heart) is pure medieval German brilliance, why couldnt the real empire seem so united and orderly instead of being the mess it actually was? Hungary is a generalized mix of settled and Magyar Hungarians and feels like that perfect world between Europe and the Steppe peoples, as it technically sort of was, and with inspiration from it's other slavic neighbors to boot. It's also the closest thing to a playable Wallachia or Romania, the former being the home nation of Vlad Tepes himself, and I think its one of the most enjoyable factions of all, history wise and unit wise. The Moors and Egypt are two perfect flavors of Islamic faction and both are badass to me. The Moors are the north african nomads and settled Muslim peoples from the old Ummayad Calpihate, and represent a very classical style Islamic nation, while Egypt represents more of that settled and regal air of Islamic nation that most are generally familiar with. I love what both bring to the table.
The greatest t thing about med 2 has to be the mods. My personal favourite mod is Tsardoms total war. If you want a late medieval eastern european super in depth realistic campaign complete with scripted historical events like the rise of the Ottomans and the Hussite wars, then I cannot recommend Tsardoms enough. It’s just amazing, the different noble houses within a faction, the importance of regional ancillaries, the difference between feudal, urban, and recruitable mercenary units, and the presence of overpowered units like Swiss pikes or Hussite units, or Ottoman cavalry. It’s very fun and very challenging.
It's old and clunky. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project.
The only thing i really dont like about Medieval II is the fact that replishment isnt automatic. Hate finally getting knights in one castle, use them to take out a small city somewhere else, and having to ship them back to my one castle that can retrain them. I get you want them to feel more rare, but a very low casualty replenishment rate would do the trick. If auto replishment would be added in I would trully love the game.
the 2 main tw games that i have played are medieval 2 and warhammer and what i missed most from coming over from medieval to warhammer is how much better cavalry and moral works in medieval imo medieval 2 charging heavy cavalry is nothing less than devastating. charging a full unit of knights into the rear of a unit of spear men while they are engaged will kill half of the spearmen almost instantly and probably also sent them running immediately, while in warhammer charging your cavalry amounts only to a slight increase in damage for a brief period after the charge, with a similar small debuff on moral which is just silly.
Honestly the cut off point for me was when they stopped hiring a diverse group of narrators I loved playing as factions and hearing different cultures it sort of gave each faction an element of authenticity which made the whole experience unique from faction to faction Total war Shogan and Rome are my go to’s was so excited for the remaster but even that didn’t improve from the original
The noises after finishing a building, unit recruitment etc. The music, omg the music!! The scope, units, countries… Though I would love to see, Empire+ Napoleon, Victorian.. Medieval is among my too priority. Add VR and “field commander mode” we are in business !!!
Medieval 2 is THE Total war game. Sadly it lacks some nice features from Medieval 1 like dismounting knights before combat, suffering losses when besieging, awarding titles to generals and my favourite - new nations emerging and defeated nations re-emerging. No idea why they were gone, a game should be introducing new ideas without removing those which worked very well.
I have put literally thousands of hours into Medieval II Total War and can't agree enough with this assessment. Honestly, the thing I keep asking myself when I try other games is why is this game so much more fun than more modern titles. I think for me it comes down to the fact that it's easy to get into the action right away and it doesn't penalize you for it. I keep trying to play the Medieval Mods for Rome II and Attila but I feel like I spend so much time in the campaign, carefully managing resources, just so I can finally have a battle that is halfway decent, only to be penalized for going to war. Maybe they are more realistic, but they're less fun. No other Total war has managed to capture defending when you're massively outnumbered and pull of a strategic move that lets you win. The predictions are too good and I find I auto-resolve way more on modern games. I almost would rather a remastered version of Medieval II with the ability to mod through Steam Workshop and access more resources on modern machines than to get a Medieval III. Fingers crossed that Feral is working on it.
For me, Medieval 2 was fine, but the apex was Empire: Total War (which I know is a bit of a hot take for many since Napoleon: Total War is seen as the superior sibling). However, the global scope of Empire, the naval battles, the ranged infantry battles, and the fairly balanced but uber complex colonial ambitions of that game were never matched again.
Hi Andy. I share your enthusiasm for Medieval 2. Can't wait for the remastered version to make it to the PC to watch in 4K and allow us to walk around the cities.
Great video, but a question for any medieval TW 2 players. My game runs way too fast, like the campaign map speed is annoyingly fast. Anyone know a fix?
In my opinion the perfect way to make a new medieval game is to recreate medieval 2 in the new engine as a baseline start point and then make medieval 3 from there
What if there was a Renaissance Total War? I think that would be a great time period. Plate mail, mercenary armies like the landskecht, Swiss pike men, Spanish pike men, the reformation, counter reformation the religious wars! Oh man
I need to ask.... Did anybody else go and change the time setting from, if I remember correctly 2 years per turn to 3 months per turn like me? So 4 in game turns equal 1 year. For troop movement on the campaign map it felt better than the original setting.
I did this every time I started a campaign to play. I was just annoyed by the fact that my generals were dying too fast and I didn't have enough time to use their full potential and develop their character. Also because I didn't have to expand too quickly, but rather strategically plan each next move.
Now if only they would release a remaster on PC! Look i know the game still works FINE on modern systesms, but GOD those old controls are so annoying to rebind.
Well said. Having played all the other titles (well, ok, not Three Kingdoms...), MTW2 outshines them all for exactly the reasons you've stated. Subscribed.
I think the only thing the new games do better is unit replenishment otherwise MTW2 is the pinnacle of the series (though ETW and STW2 have some really nice features)
2004-2009 was the golden era for gaming. There were great titles before and after it, but this was a true incubation period of masterpieces. Medieval 2, Star Wars Battlefront, GTA San Andreas, Call of Duty 2/4, BF2/2142, Crysis, Half Life 2, Portal, Bioshock, Assassins Creed 1/2, Need for Speed Underground 2/Most Wanted, World of Warcraft, Mass Effect, Stalker. Dev studios back then had enough experience after 1st gen 3D experiments and at the same time still enough freedom to truly realize their ideas.
I am cursed with always playing a short campaign with a nation and then restarting as another and thus I had no idea the troops changed later in the game. What needs to happen for that to trigger? A turn timer or some other requirement? I am inspired to play a game far enough to experience the later stages of the game now.
Medieval 2 was the best... and I played them all, bar Troy. And the mods! I'd gladly welcome a new version of this game, with a more robust engine, especially considering the potential for modifications.
Medieval II is by far my favorite Total War title, and I still play to this day. A gigantic empire building ass kicking hack and slash battle movie do pretty much whatever you want strategy game? Sign me up.
Good to know I am not the only guy playing M2TW in 2022. Clocked over 2K hours on steam, and that's well after I owned it on a CD. I play other TWs from time to time, but M2TW is still my go to TW game.
The music, the armies clothes looking so diverse, the speeches by the generals, the kingdoms expansion, the cutscenes. I love this game. When a heretic, witch and inquisitor rocked up and caused trouble is something that seems to be missing in new games. My favourite playthrough was as Egypt and Scotland. it was both simple to pick up and complex. Age of Charlemagne recaptured a lot of aspects but a shame they did not make Medieval 3 out of that.
Good points! Med 2 is my favourite too :D I am prepared to accept that there is a fair bit of nostaliga involved in that though... There are absolutely features in the newer TWs which I like more than that "gameplay-aspect's" counterpart in Med 2 (maily that battles are less buggy and "sticky"), but I feel like all of those things are related to technological advances in game development etc. rather than innovation in game design... I do wish naval battles were a thing though... developing your fleet from late antiquity-Byzantine naval warfare of Atilla TW, to like Spanish armada style-early modern naval warfare with cannon-decks etc. would be amazing
I have exclusively been playing Total War games for the last 2 years or so. I do t play super often but I sold my PC for a Mac to work from home and only total war games will run. Now ONLY Med II will run and I’m having so much fun playing through each expansion. My current Britannia campaign is *chefs kiss*. So much so that I’m going to buy a PC again just to play shogun 2 and Rome
I still think the best title screen actually goes to Attila Total War. The silhouettes of Hunnic horse archers firing with the screen red and black and the rocking Mongolian throat singing tune blasting
I would play this game a ton more if there was just one quality of life change; the scrolling speed with the mouse is absurdly slow and when I play these games I like to constantly be zooming in and out of battle so having that slow down to a crawl just ruins the entire pace for me. If anyone knows how to fix this please tell me. Also if there is a mod out there that adds the ability to look at your towns and cities up close like you can in rome 1 can some please help me find that too.
@@AndysTake damn that’s unfortunate. Good news though I fixed the mouse scrolling problem. All I had to do was change the total war style camera to rts style lol
Love all the total war games, been playing them since the early days. Couple of things in MTW2 I didn't like was the crusades would always be called at the most inconvenient times like when you want take over France and then the pope would condemn your war even though they probably started it lol, I used to send my general on the crusade for the popes favour and then abandon it straight after because it wasn't in my interest :P normally you'll find that the enemy only want a ceasefire when they're about to be destroyed. I enjoyed taking out the papal states and eliminating the pope and the favour system all together :) Some play throughs I would suck up to the pope and have all the cardinals, depends how I was feeling on the day lol
i agree so much with everything which is said in this video, i tried every total wars and only m2tw is making the game visualy clear and comfortable. some mods like bulat steel or sengoku jida with manually size unit folder modified) are truly insane to play you must try them !
medieval 2 is my fav because of the mods. the base game is amazing but Tsardoms, Italian wars, Divide and Conquer, Beginning of the End Times, and so many many more. People spend so much love and work in these mods its scary!! :D
When a Crusade is called, I wish the AI would actually bulk up the target city's defenses with 18-20 units and maybe some full stack armies surrounding the city. Instead they leave it mostly undefended with about 3-4 units inside.
Is this the NEXT Paradox game? ua-cam.com/video/GJNiPxLDeuE/v-deo.html
In a perfect alternate universe somewhere, Paradox got infused with creative assembly. The paradox team worked on the campaign maps, the C.A. team on the battles. Everyone was happy, the girls prettier, the drugs cheaper, no wars no worries, only good total war games and Eipstein actually killed himself.
Where do i sign up
Nah, they add epstein as a new agent type on campaign map - the 'master pimp' 😁
Not quite a total war tie-in, but there was a mod for Crusader Kings 3 that lets you launch a battle in Mount and Blade:Bannerlord whenever you want instead of the standard CK3 battles. I have no idea how they got it to work together, it feels like magic. All of the troop types from CK3 that you have (light infantry, light cavalry, bowmen, etc) all show up as units under your command (scaled down in number but still in the proper ratio with your enemy's units), your character gets Bannerlord traits based on your character in CK3 during the fight, etc. Truly incredible modding.
It seems that THQ might be onto something like that with Knights of Honor 2 planned to be released soon.
Pdx and c.a. combining just means twice the dlc and scummy practices. :p
Two of the features I miss most are troops visually changing with tech upgrades, and lower-tier ranged infantry having worse accuracy instead of just lower damage. Both really helped with immersion as you moved to higher tier troops. Great overview!
Definitely they used to care about the games now it's just 10 years of hanging by a total war rope lol
Another big feature I miss is the limited recruitment pool. It adds an interesting layer of balancing and can diversify your armies much more organically than unit caps.
@@caesarg.9270 Yea good for balancing empire did have that asweell hopefully they put in next historical
@@caesarg.9270they should copy the way it is implemented in the DEI mod, having different types of population, that can be turned into different units
Troops used to visually change? I dont remember that? Just different troops?
I miss the old building system, being able to build everything everywhere so long as you spent enough time and gold. That and the visual changes of the units as their gear got better.
don't forget that you can see your buildings in the battle map
@@123Juniiorr how? The only TW I was able to do that without an actual battle was Rome 2.
@@easternrebel1061 he meant in battle
@@1nuke4you3 no, in Medevil 2 mobile. Click on your faction banner/flag/shield at the left corner. Go to the list of settlement. You will see there is an "eye" icon at the settlement picture. Click on it and you can view your settlement
@@aliff3585 there is medieval 2 mobile?
It says a lot about a game, that even after almost 20 years I can remember a playthrough I had on m2tw. A Scottish Prince who I sent on a crusade, got trapped in the ME, won countless battles but eventually Egypt with sheer numbers eventually decimated my army before I could escape to safety and he was killed, and it still grates with me. Such an awesome game this was/is.
I was scottland and i had like 30 generals that cost me money. So i got a ship and maxxed it out with them, then sunk it and watched the Animation of like 12 generals dying xD
Maybe 10 years ago I decided to play as Spain. I’ve played every historical total war since medieval 1 when it first came out. But this play through I’ll never forget. I wanted to be a good Christian crusader but the pope and France didn’t like my Spaniard ways. I was forced to etch my way north to survive. Once I became strong enough I said to hell with the pope and took all of Europe. Since I had come this far I said “fuck it” and conquered the entire world on the hardest victory. I’ll never forget that.
I love the tension of the Mongol invasion, especially playing as the Russians. With no units that can directly compare to them, and just hopelessly throwing armies at them in the hopes of stalling.
Med 2 brings the kind of fear that you can’t really get from many other turn based games.
I mean sure, but what about the Huns in Attila?
The mounted boyars are able to match them
@@litboi7570
The thing is that Medieval 2 is perhaps the Total War game where cavalry was at its strongest. So imagine an entire faction that shows up with death stacks where a majority of their troops were cavalry. There's that and if the Mongols find a settlement to settle down and live long enough, they can produce some serious artillery firepower if they develop their settlements.
Bridge camping has saved entire campaigns for me
@@Scientist118 Cavalry in Attila is a lot deadlier, you can rack up like 500-600 kills regularly with 1 cavalry unit in Attila no problem, in Medieval TW best strategy against Mongols is to defend settlements and bottleneck in the streets, cavalry in Medieval 2 is basically useless if it cannot cycle charge and even cheap spearmen puts them down if they are stuck in melee
The thing with medieval 2 is that it makes you feel the world is changing constantly for me, a fan of the history total war games, the events are a huge reason that I love this one so much. Also every time
I play I find new things for example this year I learnt that you could marry a princess to the general to conquer a city easier. There are tons of ways to weaken your enemy and when you use all of them in a single campaign for me at least it feels like the peak rts experience.
Didn't know this. Thank you!
Wow. So do you marry her off then bribe the general/city easier?
@Luke Kerrell For example if you marry her to a general who is in a city with a small amount of troops you can hire mercenaries and conquer the city. It really helped me in the brittania campaign. I was Wales and had defeated England and wanted to defeat Scotland next but there is a small passage where my soldiers couldn't go through because there was a city with a massive army. I had to get to the cities behind the passage which had less troops to weaken them economically so instead of using ships I sent my princess to marry a general who I then sent to get the weaker cities which allowed me to overwhelm the big one.
One thing that I liked about Napoleon was that it added external buildings/ towns you could raid. They weren't cities, but by raiding them you could still damage the enemy without having to assault the city.
Empire med and shogun also have this feature
One thing I liked about medieval II was when you fight you can pick the terrain and it'll actually show in the battle phase. For example you chase an enemy army towards the ocean when you finally battle them in the battle map you'll see an ocean behind the enemy army. In the other total wars it just like random generates the battle map.
So true and that in itself was HUGE when deciding your attack. Where to fight is just as important as when.
As a TW fan starting from the first Shogun, I totally agree. One thing you didn't mention - absolutely amazing mods this game has. Stainless steel, which expands the vanilla experience. Warhammer, which is on par with modern CA games. And my absolute favorite of all times, Third Age, the best strategic experience you can have in a world of Tolkien.
If you want, in my opinion, one of the best base game enhancements there is also Kingdoms Grand Campaign mod that expands the European map and adds in Kingdoms DLC factions, like Norway lol, with only the Americas being left untouched but the base game America regions are still present with the Aztec Empire. Just wanted to add it to your list.
@@TheNopeTrain sure, I know about it. I just listed the tops IMO. I also like Hetmanat very much, and there is one called Rus, also a good one.
@@olegchernyak1741 I've played the kingdoms grand campaign mod its definitely worth a play if you can find all the files have to go to 3 different sites usually had to do same to get third age working cause ents, wolves and spiders was crashing it but twcenter had a file to fix it
If you've never heard of Divide & Conquer, a standalone submod of Third Age, it's an amazing submod which fleshes out the entire mod, more settlements, more factions, more units, all with high quality models and descriptions. They are even working on Version 5 right now which will add a Reunited Kingdom script to all the Dunedain factions. Arachir Galudirithon on YT used to be the mod head and has made many playthroughs if you want to check it out.
I love the way the Warhammer mod changed the economy system. It really feels like you're squeezing your peasants from all their worth while throwing every single penny and manpower you can spare into the war machine. Also the constant threat of orcs, ratmen, vampires and heretics looming near your borders . It felt more like the actual Warhammer Fantasy world than in the official Total War: Warhammer.
Am I the only one who loved M2tw's army movement in battles? When you order a unit to move, the soldiers moved individually and sometimes even disorganized, of course unless the unit is on a formation, but if not they move individually. I loved thay detail because later total war formations feels....robotic. they just don't break formation when moving around, and they move too fast it's immersion breaking.
DUDE YES!!
NTW have a lighter version of this too, especially with cav unit. It starts from the officer in middle and then ripples to the wing, that IS COOL.
Sometimes Infantries managed to do this too, flagbearer and officer leads the march while rankers follows their pace.
What triggers them I still have to find out, but they appear often in chaotic after-volley or after formations.
I actually find that annoying especially if they're still moving disoragnized while the enemy is doing a cavalry charge towards them.
I imagine that's what medieval era generals think when that happens in real life.
I do enjoy it, its just a little terrifying. I lost entire battles because of that.
They only break formation when fighting nowadays... then they just blob up
Rome total war had it too, levy pikemen had to be positioned well before contact or they will nearly break on contact
Every 1-2 years I am compelled to re-conquer the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire. Such a great game, nothing TW made since has been quite on par, in my opinion
very true.
Especially with Mods, this game is a perfect basis for a timeless classic.
And the modding in this game is unrivaled , Third Age and DaC is still awesome
I do the exact same thing with the stainless steel mod
The eastern Roman Empire?
I believe you mean the new colonies of the Holy Roman Empire?
The only reason people hate on Medieval 2's Vanilla game play, is because it has the most varied and best mods of any total war game, and any strategy game besides mount and blade warband. The excellent base that vanilla provides though is the reason so many modders chose to work on medieval 2.
The vanilla game is broken by a bug. Once fixed the campaign is actually really good while role playing.
@@ernimuja6991 you mean the diplomacy bug? I was playing it yesterday and realized that the characters don't age correctly, i will look into mods to improve the game.
@@striker3727 The reputation bug. If you decide to spare a city it is supposed to increase reputation by 2 I think, instead it defaults to -2 which is as bad as executing everyone.
The best choice is -0.5 which is sacking so players constantly lose reputation and ai hates them for no reason.
Is that the bug you are taking about?
@@ernimuja6991 yes it is
Nah, it's old and clunky. The TW Warhammer games are a lot more dynamic in scope, more variety, better graphics and strategically deeper. There's a reason why almost everyone is playing it. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project.
No mention of the late game Timurid invasion? :( The actual end game boss with war elephants with cannons... An unstoppable force of destruction.
I personally feel MTW2 wasn't the trendsetter by itself- almost every mechanic that excels in MTW2 originated in Rome. So I still have to give the throne to Rome Total War, but it's by a hair's breadth. I love them both and always will.
rome 1 did have a lot of the features medieval 2 had, but Medieval 2 just did most of them better.
Siege battles in rome 1 are beyond atrocious, especially with larger settlements.
@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 That's true, MTW2 refined most of the RTW features, but the leap from MTW1 to RTW was IMO the biggest leap in the series. It's practically a different game type to go back to MTW1- RTW has most of the mechanics that are recognizable all the way up to TWWH3 and TW3K.
@@JB-xl2jc
oh yeah, definitely. Im just saying that medieval polished and improved on a lot of the RTW concepts, though there were parts of RTW that i missed going into medieval 2.
@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 Siege battles in all of these games are horrible. They have never done it right. The games shine in the open field battles.
@@walmartian422
nah, Medieval 2 kingdoms did it decently. the AI actually attacks multiple points of your defense (most of the time), and the pathfinding mostly works.
What i like from Medieval II is that your generals can get hit points on the battlefield that really help. Such as "Marks of War" trait.
Storm clouds gather of over Europe.
That one phrase is burned into my very soul by now.
I also love the Medieval 2's city building, because it's far more accurate, as up unto the Industrial Revolution, cities generally tried to be as completely self sufficient (which considering the horrifyingly reality of trade at the time, made sense.)
I haven’t played Medieval 2, but I have played Napoleon and Fall of the Samurai, and I’ve always thought that having the ability to develop whichever city you choose into a tactically important location would work miles for the campaign experience
honestly I prefer a hybrid approach, for example you can't just develop any city in stainless steel unless you have a really good governor
Its frustrating not being able to build watchtowers or even forts wherever I want.
Two points I would like to add off the top of my head:
1. Moding! The amount and depth of mods that are available for this game is immense! When Warhammer Total War came out I couldn't afford it, but I did not care as I was able to play a more complete mod in MTW2. Amongst a grand variety of other mods that I sank weeks into each!
2. Descriptions. This goes for Rome as well. I miss being able to right-click on a unit/building card and reading the simple description that popped up, the current "wiki" method is slow and horrible & I don't get good descriptions if any at all.
The thing that makes medieval 2 better then all newer titles, is the ability to completely mod the campaign map. So many total conversions out there which multiple the replay ability by a 100 fold.
Exactly, this is partially why I desperately want a remaster. Imagine the possibilities with an updated engine and restrictions lifted, like with Rome Remastered.
@@AndysTake Please no, not a remaster. We want a completely more in depth game on the most modern version of the engine. Bigger map, bigger graphics, bigger battles and much more intricate management and diplomacy.
@@mezjean5966 The next historical title after WH series wraps up with all its planned DLC releses and balancing patches after said releases, will need a completely new engine built from scratch. Hopefully they do this, and not be cheap and reuse FotS or ToB/Rome 2 engines. Otherwise I am not interested, even if its a new historical title with new "features and mechanics", fuck that. Another iteration of a game you've play for thousands of hours? Boring, and a greedy cash grab. Not to say work wouldn't be put into it, or passion, but if they want to keep the veterans that made their company what it is, they need to build a new engine for the next historical. Again, I do not want a cut and paste with just different names and models for factions/Kingdoms. They did that with Troy(I know its a "saga" and not streamlined CA), and they did it for 3 iterations of WH. Foolish enough at the time to buy every single DLC there is for WH1 and 2. WH3 for $20? worth it to me for the mega campaign. But it would still feel like a jab to the gut, seeing how it's been the same game but with just different factions and heroes added, and focus on balancing for multiplayer. Total War is and always will be, predominantly played single-player. Anyhow, I hope this isn't received as an affront, I'm just speaking my two cents.
I remember playing this as my first Total War game. Its imperfect, as a staunch ally can decide to attack you just because a town that borders them is underdefended. Yet they'll never accept peace despite losing a war because they just hate you that much. This is fixed better in Shogun 2, where most allies will stick with you as long as they're not boxed in, and enemies will be happy for a peace treaty once their armies are defeated.
Although this game allows you to upgrade your experienced troops in towns with better buildings as you build better stuff, and Shogun 2 doesn't allow for that. So there are pros and cons.
Best game in the Total War franchise. Animations, temp, global map
Nah, it's old and clunky. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project. Warhammer III all the way!
Something I would really love is to have a proper citadel within a city. It just feels so weird that you have to demolish an entire city if you want to set up a fort. Instead it would be cool for settlements to grow outside of existing forts and to be able to add a citadel to an existing city. I've only really played Medieval II so I dunno if this already exists in other games from the franchise.
I’ve been playing this for years and had no clue you could send individual armies to crusade holy shit
What, then how did you go on crusades?! :O
@@AndysTake lets just sail Britain to the Holy Land!
I totally agree with everything you said in the video. Medieval 2 total war is my favorite strategy game of all time. After all these years, I am still playing regularly one or two campaigns every year...
Nah, it's old and clunky. The TW Warhammer games (or games like Shogun) are a lot more dynamic in scope, more variety, better graphics and strategically deeper. There's a reason why almost everyone is playing it. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project.
This is one of my favorite games of all time, but there are some aspects that annoy me
First, the way the a.i. uses siege equipment. They will literally hold back and fire at your walls until they're out of ammo, and it takes forever, even on 6 times speed. By turn 30 everybody has ballistas and catapults, making siege defense less fun, and more of an annoyance, in my opinion.
Second, random nations will start wars with you for absolutely no reason, by blockading one of your ports for one turn, and then leaving. It usually happens when you're not at war with anybody, and you're making a lot of money from trade. And sending diplomats is pointless. 9 times out of 10 nobody who starts a war with you will ever accept a peace offer, no matter how much you try, or what you offer them, because there is a bug in the diplomacy system, that makes everyone hate you with searing passion eventually. Allies will turn on you and gain nothing from it.
Speaking of bugs, there is a known issue with two handed weapons, which makes most two handed units almost worthless. Dismounted Gothic knights should be one of the best units in the game, but instead are one of the worst because of this. And it's not even an actual bug, it was a design choice for balance, and was just never corrected. Turkish janissaries are notoriously bad because of this flaw.
Lastly, the plague. The event itself is fine. It only lasts a few turns, affects everybody and is easy to recover from. The problem is the a.i. will occasionally "cheat" with it. I had one city (Bruges or Antwerp) with plague for almost 30 turns, long after every other city had recovered. And of course my king was there with one of my best armies. They were whittled down to be almost useless, and I couldn't move my high authority king without spreading the plague, or move the army out for fear of revolt. There didn't seem to be any reason for this, other than the a.i. didn't want me to have that army, or move my king. It hasn't happened before or since, but it apparently does happen, and it's incredibly annoying.
An honorable mention, the mongols and timurids seem to choose their spawning location based on where the player is, and start heading straight for you, even though they shouldn't even know where you are. I may be imagining this, but it seems to happen in almost every game. I sometimes avoid taking any territory in the M.E. or Russia, because I like to focus on fighting other normal factions, rather than fighting off 12 full stack armies of overpowered horse archers. There is also no Ghengis Khan or Tamerlane, which is just disappointing.
1. you take a unit outside and they will engage you, ending the artilery siege.
2. Yeah I agree, especially on the VH/VH campaign. Diplomacy is the weak point of m2t2
3. Never knew, and I love janissaries? what is the bug?
4. I think this is just your bias.
5. Not true. In my last two campaigns, as byzantine and egypt, they both times spawned on the russian side, conquering kiev. It also happened many times in the past, because I remember being happy for them going the side oposite of minel.
@@Dri143 I used to try to stop artillery sieges that way but usually if you don't destroy every piece, they will just continue the bombardment. It usually ends up costing me a unit, so I only do it now if the artillery is exposed, and there isn't that much of it. But, it does work sometimes.
As far as the two handed weapons thing goes as far as I understand it's about attack speed. And it effects two handed swords the most. If janissaries work well for you, then that's awesome. But it's been my experience that they can't win against a lot of other heavy infantry. But then again, their stats aren't as good as most Dismounted knights, so it's probably more that than the bug.
The plague thing is currently happening again in my latest campaign as Egypt. My king is in Antioch, and the plague simply will not go away. I even have good amount of health related buildings there. But now that I think about it, the issue is probably plagued spies or something, so my bad on that.
During this Egypt campaign, the mongols spawned in the south, but ended up going north to Kiev anyway. I was shocked. The Tims are currently attacking Baghdad and Mosul, but at least I didn't have to deal with it twice.
In conclusion, I take back most of what I said. But at least I was right about diplomacy.
@@willlastnameguy8329 yeah timurids usually go for antioch, not much one can do about that but be as prepared as possible.
One of the best strategy game ever made. 😔
Is so unfortunate that they haven’t done a medieval 3
Another thing that I miss in the new titles are the mods. Medieval 2 has the best mods from any CA game, and it's a shame that they never bothered to allow such things again.
Med2TW was a great game, with great replayability and features that, for its time, made it a true masterpiece. I believe that CA is unlikely to reach such levels in this new decade, at least with their current mindset... For the moment we have to 'settle' for the mod for Attila, a great work on another great game, but certainly not comparable to this old legend title.
Man well said . I wish they cared about historical games again no love for their games anymore
Play rome total war remastered with chivalry total war mod, and you'll basically have an updated version of medieval II:total war that runs on modern hardware.
Yeah, for it's time. But now it's just old and clunky. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project. The TW Warhammer games are a lot more dynamic in scope, more variety, better graphics and strategically deeper. There's a reason why almost everyone is playing it.
I remember playing as the Holy Roman Empire and rushing to get muskets and elite cavalry to invade the French.
Good times :)
I heard about Medieval 2 a couple years ago and decided to give it a shot. It can be a very stressful and confusing game at times (I still struggle with public order and economy tanking on the latter portion of my playthroughs) but it is also one of my favorite games ever. Only true gripe I have with this game is how the AI can be extremely biased against you. Spies and assasins will generally screw up every single time even with really good success rates and you can work tirelessly to gain favor from the pope but when another Christian faction attacks you for multiple turns he'll say absolutely nothing yet the second you retaliate he won't even give you a turn before demanding you to cease hostilities and threatening you with excomunication.
The neatest and most clean visual outcome in a strategy campaign map, was Lords of the Realm II.
I love this game. Currently playing this on my phone.
In my Denmark campaign. I got into a rather intense war with the HRE early on and I beat them hard(though not hard enough regrettably). I conquered almost every port in the Baltic Sea(the Poles are my ally so I allowed them to keep their port). Got into a brief fight with the Mongols over the city of Riga which, in hindsight maybe I should have let them keep it.
In the middle of all of that, I spammed as many priests aw I could to the point that there was 11 Danes as the Cardinals allowing me to control the church(for a while).
Then I decide to try and restore the North Sea Empire because I'm a history nerd so I gathered all but one of my armies to invade England. That got me excommunicated and while most of my army are in England ending British careers, the Pope called a crusade on Riga which triggered every Catholic city, including all my allies, to declare war on me.
I'm sending assassins to kill the pope because fuck that guy.
And what happened later
Been playing this game until now. So far its the best total war game so far. How I wished there is remastered or MTW3.
We need Medieval 3 and Empire 2, Total War, take our money!
not with the current engine. warhammer battles will ruine a new Medieval 3. As will do more of the current features.
I also loved the unit abilities and formations I really hate not being able to put my spearmen into phalanx :(
Some factions have access to pikemen, and while they don't carry shields, there are guides to stack em and recreate the effect- it just takes micro intensive work/focus to keep them effective at stacking more expensive unit bodies as time goes on.
To that end it's also important to try learning how to effectively implement self sufficient units like skirmishers or defensive formations that can carry on other fights nearby while being ignored, allowing such focus.
3:28 100% agree 11:29 medieval 2 has the best cav charges, no one can deny it. Amazing gunpowder and cannon sounds. Perfect artillery reloading. It's just amazing! And the scripting killing blows are not broken like Empire! 13:20 So true, way better than Shogun 2.
Following the cycle that CA had with Rome Total War, I have very little doubt that we'll see a Medieval II remastered, especially now that the mobile version of Medieval II has released. Depending on how Medieval II does, seeing that Rome Remastered did well, I have hope for a Medieval III as they may be laying the groundwork for that.
I thought empire was the most interesting total war. They managed to incorporate black powder weapons well, and the unit variety throughout the map was wild. My British Indian line infantry made their way all the way across the America's.
It's a really good experience on its own grounds, but it suffers from a lot of poor choices and issues.
Like after going from Empire to Napoleon, I immediately gravitated towards the stronger design and gameplay but couldn't help but long for the vast scale of Empire.
@@buzter8135 yeah for sure it's aged badly
Streltzy spam also crossing the Americas even in late game 😄
You don't need guns if you have enough pointy sticks!
terms of gunpowder, medeival 2 has the best fire by rank in tw series. its so smooth and look professional
I'm loving playing the Americas campaign as the Spanish, gradually conquering the New World piece by piece, and gradually discovering this new strange world piece by piece, battling the Aztecs with your own native allies who outnumber your own Spanish Conquistadors.
Total War: Attila had so much potential becoming great but the thing is it was too chaotic in which you would easily get lost if you're a new player. If you start a game there is more than 70 kingdom/clans so if you pick any of weak kingdom on eastern Europe you will get mad how many nomadic tribes are rampaging your lands and they will keep coming
What was not to like?
Great evrionments, battles and sieges (compared to others), great unit animation in using swords, axes, bows and artillery, and sometimes perfect in cavalry charges,...
You could even see the improvements of the armory on your units.
The speeches of the generals were cool, sometimes hilarious or totally out of control (First we play with swords, and then...we play with swords with their women...or something similar)
A lot of things happening: crusades, Mongols, Timurids, the black plague, the great drowning of men, invention of gunpowder, take caravels to the New World...
You could go for a benevolant ruler or the most harsh person, send out priests to manipulate the papal election, take out merchants with yours, and what about the many cutscenes for a royal wedding ,but certainly for assassins out to kill merchants, princesses, generals, or even the pope.
The only thing missing was the possibility to manually fight sea battles.
Only thing wrong in my opinion is that my favorite foods for Med 2 require that Daylight Savings Time not be active.
This will be the greatest remaster ever, a single huge map as detailed as each of the expansions but combined into one, AND more additions, better graphics but nothing OTT, better optimization, 40 unit per army option
It's too old and clunky. Compared to something like Warhammer III this falls short immensely.
I never stop playing this masterpiece every 6 or 10 months since 2006.
I wish medieval 3 would take this game and improve all the things that needs improving like diplomacy.
This game changed my life in middle school. Got me interested in history on a huge scale.
My problem with medieval 2 was that everyone declares war on you basically no matter what which just gets tedious to deal with.
easy solution , play on normal where anything can happen , howerever some factions are more or less hardcoded to be agressive , like sicily or milan
At it's time, Medieval 2 Total War was really well-balanced in its graphics and aesthetic, but also found a pleasant middle ground between realism and a gamer friendly color-code. Sound, music and voice-acting the video already mentioned was on point.
Well, like another UA-camr once said ... and RTS stands for real-time strategy, but a good RTS stands for real-time sandbox.
Most Total Wars after M2TW aren't a sandbox experience anymore, but play out more like a scenario and the creators dictate you the pacing and steps you must take. You can see this in any aspect of the game, be it city management, diplomacy, agents, recruitment etc.
In M2TW you had really little specification to think about. You could choose between cities and castles freely, what to build and when. The only thing the game didn't allow you was to build a harbor without a coastline or mines without specific resources. Factions were only differentiated by their unit rooster and some slight tweaks in what buildings would be available. Mechanic vice, most things were the same.
Even Shogun 2 Total War already broke with this. The cities already had a slot system and a sup-village with a specific resource you could exploit... which was things from food to agents ... to harbors ... on an island nation yeah. I know from a realistic point of view, you can't just slap a harbor on any part of the coast without mayor risk for anybody involved ... but yeah.
Diplomacy is always a bit lackluster in most TW games, I guess three kingdoms had the best so far? Rome 2 Total War is a mess ... it's all about conquest... who cares about city management? Slots! Who cares about diplomacy? Bias AI! Aesthetics? GRAPHICS! Attila Total War puts the scenario before the gameplay. Everything going wrong? Well, so do you! Have some railed events and feel bad. Thus, everything has to be darker and gray because scenario!
Don't let me talk about the Saga games, that a clearly even more focused on a specific scenario that you have to play how the developer intended to ... To be fair, they did try to play with new game mechanics, but it's sadly it's mostly a single aspect and everything else is even more cut short to rail the experience.
Three Kingdoms was a step in the right direction, but wanted to appease too many people at the same time?
Well, The War Hammer games just work. I guess from the setting, you would think it's just one huge scenario you have to play out, and you would be right. But it's just so sandboxy enough that you roll with it. Most aspects fit the intended purpose, and nobody who plays skaven would even start to complain about the lack of diplomacy with other factions ... which actually is still there with a few. Orcs? Why would I care to build up rubble. Empire? Having a strife between? Ah, we can deal with it. Kislev? Sure, we ride bears, who wouldn't?
War Hammer total War is all about the rule of cool and that's it... it just works.
So yeah... well at last you could mention Empire total War and Napoleón Total War which both tried out a new age and actually had some interesting ideas. But I guess they really tried too hard and missed the point where grand strategy is a bit more than just plain board of risk.
One thing i hated though was having to deal with the Timurids. Just unnecessarily ridiculous and honestly a buzz kill. Half of the fun was the Middle East but I find myself avoiding it because I know the timurids are going to come and just mess everything up.
Other than that hands down one of the best games of the series and I love it even today.
Back in the day, when they made games for gamers.
Personally, I like the vast majority of factions in this game.
A couple of standouts for me are: Venice, Milan, HRE, Scotland, Hungary, Russia, Moors and Egypt.
I love Venice and Milan (and shoutouts to Sicily) for being Italian factions that show off a flavor of European culture and military that is often unsung compared to others and, being part italian myself, I like kicking ass with my heritage factions.
The HRE (also known as the Holy German Fustercluck in my heart) is pure medieval German brilliance, why couldnt the real empire seem so united and orderly instead of being the mess it actually was?
Hungary is a generalized mix of settled and Magyar Hungarians and feels like that perfect world between Europe and the Steppe peoples, as it technically sort of was, and with inspiration from it's other slavic neighbors to boot. It's also the closest thing to a playable Wallachia or Romania, the former being the home nation of Vlad Tepes himself, and I think its one of the most enjoyable factions of all, history wise and unit wise.
The Moors and Egypt are two perfect flavors of Islamic faction and both are badass to me.
The Moors are the north african nomads and settled Muslim peoples from the old Ummayad Calpihate, and represent a very classical style Islamic nation, while Egypt represents more of that settled and regal air of Islamic nation that most are generally familiar with. I love what both bring to the table.
The greatest t thing about med 2 has to be the mods. My personal favourite mod is Tsardoms total war. If you want a late medieval eastern european super in depth realistic campaign complete with scripted historical events like the rise of the Ottomans and the Hussite wars, then I cannot recommend Tsardoms enough. It’s just amazing, the different noble houses within a faction, the importance of regional ancillaries, the difference between feudal, urban, and recruitable mercenary units, and the presence of overpowered units like Swiss pikes or Hussite units, or Ottoman cavalry. It’s very fun and very challenging.
It's old and clunky. They modders have tried but really there is ony so much you can do. D&C is boring as hell and stainless steel feels more like a typical community patched project.
The only thing i really dont like about Medieval II is the fact that replishment isnt automatic. Hate finally getting knights in one castle, use them to take out a small city somewhere else, and having to ship them back to my one castle that can retrain them. I get you want them to feel more rare, but a very low casualty replenishment rate would do the trick. If auto replishment would be added in I would trully love the game.
you don't need to ship them back, you can just recruit another unit, send it to your army, and merge with the veterans ;)
the 2 main tw games that i have played are medieval 2 and warhammer and what i missed most from coming over from medieval to warhammer is how much better cavalry and moral works in medieval imo
medieval 2 charging heavy cavalry is nothing less than devastating. charging a full unit of knights into the rear of a unit of spear men while they are engaged will kill half of the spearmen almost instantly and probably also sent them running immediately, while in warhammer charging your cavalry amounts only to a slight increase in damage for a brief period after the charge, with a similar small debuff on moral which is just silly.
I miss having the time to look at the battle instead of moving units and using abilities like a maniac throughout the entire battle.
Honestly the cut off point for me was when they stopped hiring a diverse group of narrators I loved playing as factions and hearing different cultures it sort of gave each faction an element of authenticity which made the whole experience unique from faction to faction Total war Shogan and Rome are my go to’s was so excited for the remaster but even that didn’t improve from the original
The noises after finishing a building, unit recruitment etc.
The music, omg the music!!
The scope, units, countries…
Though I would love to see, Empire+ Napoleon, Victorian.. Medieval is among my too priority.
Add VR and “field commander mode” we are in business !!!
Love the sound effects as well!
Medieval 2 is THE Total war game. Sadly it lacks some nice features from Medieval 1 like dismounting knights before combat, suffering losses when besieging, awarding titles to generals and my favourite - new nations emerging and defeated nations re-emerging. No idea why they were gone, a game should be introducing new ideas without removing those which worked very well.
I have put literally thousands of hours into Medieval II Total War and can't agree enough with this assessment. Honestly, the thing I keep asking myself when I try other games is why is this game so much more fun than more modern titles. I think for me it comes down to the fact that it's easy to get into the action right away and it doesn't penalize you for it. I keep trying to play the Medieval Mods for Rome II and Attila but I feel like I spend so much time in the campaign, carefully managing resources, just so I can finally have a battle that is halfway decent, only to be penalized for going to war. Maybe they are more realistic, but they're less fun. No other Total war has managed to capture defending when you're massively outnumbered and pull of a strategic move that lets you win. The predictions are too good and I find I auto-resolve way more on modern games.
I almost would rather a remastered version of Medieval II with the ability to mod through Steam Workshop and access more resources on modern machines than to get a Medieval III. Fingers crossed that Feral is working on it.
Even though I have never played the game and I was born 2 years after this game, I think they really need to make a medieval 3.
Medieval 2 remastered will be enough.
For me, Medieval 2 was fine, but the apex was Empire: Total War (which I know is a bit of a hot take for many since Napoleon: Total War is seen as the superior sibling). However, the global scope of Empire, the naval battles, the ranged infantry battles, and the fairly balanced but uber complex colonial ambitions of that game were never matched again.
The third age total war LOTR mod. Makes this game one of the greatest of all time. 2000 hours vanilla. 2000 more for LOTR
Hi Andy. I share your enthusiasm for Medieval 2. Can't wait for the remastered version to make it to the PC to watch in 4K and allow us to walk around the cities.
2:10 hearing the music made my heart sink, I love medieval 2!
If a game came out in 2006 and your still playing it, it’s a quality game
Great video, but a question for any medieval TW 2 players. My game runs way too fast, like the campaign map speed is annoyingly fast. Anyone know a fix?
No fix sadly :/
In my opinion the perfect way to make a new medieval game is to recreate medieval 2 in the new engine as a baseline start point and then make medieval 3 from there
What if there was a Renaissance Total War? I think that would be a great time period. Plate mail, mercenary armies like the landskecht, Swiss pike men, Spanish pike men, the reformation, counter reformation the religious wars! Oh man
almost all the things you said exist in the game, i am pretty sure medieval 2 timeline ends at pre/early renaissance
Indeed, Medieval 2 has the renaissance built into it, just not the reformation
Enough of Warhammers... we want the Medieval 3
I need to ask....
Did anybody else go and change the time setting from, if I remember correctly 2 years per turn to 3 months per turn like me? So 4 in game turns equal 1 year. For troop movement on the campaign map it felt better than the original setting.
I did this every time I started a campaign to play. I was just annoyed by the fact that my generals were dying too fast and I didn't have enough time to use their full potential and develop their character. Also because I didn't have to expand too quickly, but rather strategically plan each next move.
Now if only they would release a remaster on PC! Look i know the game still works FINE on modern systesms, but GOD those old controls are so annoying to rebind.
I'm still abhor the limited build slots that come with nu-total war titles. And older TW titles have better UI too, in the case of readability
This feels a lot like Crusader Kings, but with the epic battlefields that the CK series doesn't have.
Well said. Having played all the other titles (well, ok, not Three Kingdoms...), MTW2 outshines them all for exactly the reasons you've stated. Subscribed.
I think the only thing the new games do better is unit replenishment otherwise MTW2 is the pinnacle of the series (though ETW and STW2 have some really nice features)
The grand campaign felt soo more alive in M2TW with all the agents & the forts/wathtowers all over the place.
Exactly, forts were so damn immersive!
Medieval 2 somehow manages to be fun even without the mods
The with the Mods , fucking great
Still Play this Game on my Laptop... Love it and will Play it in the Future...never ending Love.
I can't believe CA stole Andy's family
What I do have is a very particular set of skills. I have their PR contact info. And I will contact them. And when I do, oh boy.
@@AndysTake Just take it up with the HR department XD
2004-2009 was the golden era for gaming. There were great titles before and after it, but this was a true incubation period of masterpieces.
Medieval 2, Star Wars Battlefront, GTA San Andreas, Call of Duty 2/4, BF2/2142, Crysis, Half Life 2, Portal, Bioshock, Assassins Creed 1/2, Need for Speed Underground 2/Most Wanted, World of Warcraft, Mass Effect, Stalker.
Dev studios back then had enough experience after 1st gen 3D experiments and at the same time still enough freedom to truly realize their ideas.
I am cursed with always playing a short campaign with a nation and then restarting as another and thus I had no idea the troops changed later in the game. What needs to happen for that to trigger? A turn timer or some other requirement? I am inspired to play a game far enough to experience the later stages of the game now.
The medieval mod for Attila went so hard. Felt like I was playing medieval 3
Medieval 2 was the best... and I played them all, bar Troy. And the mods! I'd gladly welcome a new version of this game, with a more robust engine, especially considering the potential for modifications.
Medieval II is by far my favorite Total War title, and I still play to this day. A gigantic empire building ass kicking hack and slash battle movie do pretty much whatever you want strategy game? Sign me up.
Good to know I am not the only guy playing M2TW in 2022. Clocked over 2K hours on steam, and that's well after I owned it on a CD. I play other TWs from time to time, but M2TW is still my go to TW game.
Imagine a TW game that has the campaign of medieval 2 and the battles of shogun 2.
A match made in heaven, I tell you.
i discovered that physical appearance change from armor/weapon lvl a few years into playing and it blew me away
The music, the armies clothes looking so diverse, the speeches by the generals, the kingdoms expansion, the cutscenes. I love this game. When a heretic, witch and inquisitor rocked up and caused trouble is something that seems to be missing in new games. My favourite playthrough was as Egypt and Scotland. it was both simple to pick up and complex. Age of Charlemagne recaptured a lot of aspects but a shame they did not make Medieval 3 out of that.
Good points! Med 2 is my favourite too :D I am prepared to accept that there is a fair bit of nostaliga involved in that though...
There are absolutely features in the newer TWs which I like more than that "gameplay-aspect's" counterpart in Med 2 (maily that battles are less buggy and "sticky"), but I feel like all of those things are related to technological advances in game development etc. rather than innovation in game design...
I do wish naval battles were a thing though... developing your fleet from late antiquity-Byzantine naval warfare of Atilla TW, to like Spanish armada style-early modern naval warfare with cannon-decks etc. would be amazing
Great video outlining just what made this game an absolute gem - definitely subbed!!
can't believe you talked about "towns" and strategic decisions in medieval 2 and didn't mention castles
I have exclusively been playing Total War games for the last 2 years or so. I do t play super often but I sold my PC for a Mac to work from home and only total war games will run. Now ONLY Med II will run and I’m having so much fun playing through each expansion. My current Britannia campaign is *chefs kiss*.
So much so that I’m going to buy a PC again just to play shogun 2 and Rome
Total war medieval 2 and knights of honor.. my childhood
M2:TW is the apex of TW series and I'll die on those words.
I still think the best title screen actually goes to Attila Total War. The silhouettes of Hunnic horse archers firing with the screen red and black and the rocking Mongolian throat singing tune blasting
I would play this game a ton more if there was just one quality of life change; the scrolling speed with the mouse is absurdly slow and when I play these games I like to constantly be zooming in and out of battle so having that slow down to a crawl just ruins the entire pace for me. If anyone knows how to fix this please tell me. Also if there is a mod out there that adds the ability to look at your towns and cities up close like you can in rome 1 can some please help me find that too.
Probably just gonna have to wait for a remaster :’(
@@AndysTake damn that’s unfortunate. Good news though I fixed the mouse scrolling problem. All I had to do was change the total war style camera to rts style lol
Love all the total war games, been playing them since the early days. Couple of things in MTW2 I didn't like was the crusades would always be called at the most inconvenient times like when you want take over France and then the pope would condemn your war even though they probably started it lol, I used to send my general on the crusade for the popes favour and then abandon it straight after because it wasn't in my interest :P normally you'll find that the enemy only want a ceasefire when they're about to be destroyed. I enjoyed taking out the papal states and eliminating the pope and the favour system all together :) Some play throughs I would suck up to the pope and have all the cardinals, depends how I was feeling on the day lol
From all strategy game out there total war medieval 2 is still my best game ever played despite its age im still gonna play it for decade to come.
My favorite is the HRE too. Its awsome when they talk to you as the the kaiser.
i agree so much with everything which is said in this video, i tried every total wars and only m2tw is making the game visualy clear and comfortable. some mods like bulat steel or sengoku jida with manually size unit folder modified) are truly insane to play you must try them !
medieval 2 is my fav because of the mods.
the base game is amazing but Tsardoms, Italian wars, Divide and Conquer, Beginning of the End Times, and so many many more.
People spend so much love and work in these mods its scary!! :D
When a Crusade is called, I wish the AI would actually bulk up the target city's defenses with 18-20 units and maybe some full stack armies surrounding the city. Instead they leave it mostly undefended with about 3-4 units inside.
True, this is the most annoying thing.