Your Total War tactic

[No_Remainders]

So, I got Medieval 2: Total War from Steam when the Sega deal was on, and I'm loving it.

I was wondering about this though. What's everyone else's tactic in the Total War games?

Personally, I enjoy building up my armies and cities/castles while taking the rebel outposts surrounding me. Also, to make my lands safer, I killed Scotland as quickly as possible to prevent them from being a possible threat later on. As well as this, I took France in like 10 turns by just massing almost all my units on the coasts and started besieging all the coastal regions with at least two full armies.

I'm not sure where I'll go from here, possibly Spain or Germany.

 

[Je Suis Ubermonkey]

My tactic is to win. Having a solidly set tactic rarely works well because you have to adapt to your enemy.

Here are some fun vague ones though:
Cavalry hordes. As Egypt I took 30 settlements in 30 turns, on hard difficulty, by spamming light/medium cavalry and charging them in a rolling 3-wave battle tactic.

Defense. Go v. hard/v. hard and don't expand past half a dozen settlements. Makes it really challenging when superpowers develop and you aren't one of them.

Bribe the Pope. No matter how many Christians you kill, you can always bribe the Pope until he thinks you're perfect in every way. He'll even sometimes take your side in wars that you start.

As Portugal armies of pikes in the main line, sword militia on the flanks and jinetes as support will crush other Western forces, especially if you put musketeers just in-front of the pikemen - they can fire unimpeded but the enemy cavalry can't get to them through the pikes.

Oh yes, and outnumbering the Mongol horde 3:1 is terribly expensive but also really, really satisfying. I put 40,000 professional soldiers on the Steppes one time.

And here's the biggest tip of all: Money. You need it, you can do anything when you have it, use trade and looting to get it. (The same rules also apply to longbows.)

Try playing as an Eastern faction for a bit of variety.

 

[No_Remainders]

Try playing as an Eastern faction for a bit of variety.

Can't until I beat them in the game, which I haven't yet, because I'm only on my first playthrough.

But yeah, English Longbowmen are the business.

Oh, and also, having 3 English Popes in a row is kinda useful.

 

[Jakub324]

I've only played Rome: Total War, but I'm a fan of getting cavalry around the back to kill their general and best units and then meeting whatever the've got left head on. This works best against phalanx-heavy armies.

 

[LookingGlass]

I was happily doing my thing in the same game earlier tonight... getting trade rights and map information with everybody (and a couple of alliances) and doing the early missions for the Pope for a little extra money.

Then I attacked Scotland (they totally deserved it for taking a rebel town/castle I wanted) and he (the Pope) decided to excommunicate me because they're catholic and he thinks they're cool. So I don't like him anymore.

 

[Je Suis Ubermonkey]

Try playing as an Eastern faction for a bit of variety.

Can't until I beat them in the game, which I haven't yet, because I'm only on my first playthrough.

But yeah, English Longbowmen are the business.

Oh, and also, having 3 English Popes in a row is kinda useful.

I think you only have to wipe out a faction in order to play as them. Of course I'll be really embarrassed if that's wrong because I should know for certain having played it for hundreds of hours.

So yeah, just go on a crusade and kill an Eastern faction you can play as (I'd go for Egypt, no real reason). Or kill everyone on your first playthrough and then you can definitely do it.

 

[Jandau]

Step 1: Pick a major country near you and make an alliance with them. Prefferably marry your princess to their heir. This ensures you a measure of safety from one direction
Step 2: Expand to the neutral provinces in the direction of your ally. Since he's your ally, you won't be attacking him and you want to maximize your land grab. Any provinces you miss in the other directions you'll take later anyway.
Step 3: Send a diplomat to Rome and start paying the Pope 100-200 per turn for 20+ turns. This will ensure you're in good graces with the Pope (Christian) and/or that no Crusades will be called on you (Muslim). If you can get an Alliance with the Pope, even better!
Step 4: Send a few Diplomats on a world tour and secure Trade agreements with EVERYONE. Also get their Map info if you can.
Step 5: Gobble up any remaining neutral provinces, bunker down and start building up. Sooner or later someone will attack you, no point in rushing things.
Step 6: When someone does attack you, kill their arse. If the Pope tells you to stop, check your standing with him. If it's maxed or nearly maxed, ignore him and keep killing.
Step 7: After you have destroyed your enemy, go to step 5 and repeat until you win the game.

Other than that...

Always play Siege defenses (you'll get better results than in autoresolve), always autoresolve siege assaults or wait them out (autoresolve screws you over here).

You need more Cities than Castles. If you're playing Milan or Venice, you hardly need Castles at all. Being able to field a large elite army is useless if you don't have the money for it.

Don't build Farms in cities. They grow your population waaaaay too fast. In general, you want to be able to keep taxes maxed and get your cities to max size (24000 is the last upgrade, I think) and then drop your population growth to zero or less. If your population gets out of hand, consider spreading the Plague to overpopulated cities (I'm not kidding). You can build Town Halls when you need pop growth and demolish them later. Farms can't be demolished, so don't upgrade them much (feel free to upgrade them in Castles though).

Always sack captured cities, the cash is good.

Never break Alliances. Don't declare wars unless you have to. This lowers your reputation and makes other kingdoms less likely to deal with you and more likely to attack you at the worst moment. People will declare wars on you on their own and then you are blameless.

In general Heavy Cavalry and Heavy Infantry rule open field battles. Spearmen and Archers rule siege defenses. Everybody sucks at attacking in sieges.

Mongols will kick our ass. Timurids will kick your ass and then have rough sweaty sex with it. Mongols can be beaten in sieges (they don't have any cannons or catapults), but Timurids just bring their Elephant-mounted Cannons (again, not kidding) and laugh at you. The thing is, you need to fight them. If you let the Mongols settle and build up, they'll become almost unstoppable. Even if you're far away from them, call Crusades on their cities.

Speaking of Crusades, did you know you can call them on excomunicated christian nations? Can't hurt to call one on a city you were about to take anyway; two birds, one stone and all that.

 

[Lord Kloo]

I only have Rome Total War at the moment but I have several good tactics:

Disobedient citizens of your home or conquered cities? Can't make them happier no matter what you do? Then simply remove your forces, raise taxes, do some shit and wait for the rebellion. Now comes the fun part, send in the full weight of your home army and perhaps some mercs, and crush the city and execute the population. Result, compliant city with reduced population meaning less over-crowding and more time to build all of the buildings before having to build a massive palace every 5 mins..

Having trouble attacking the enemy on the field with your phalanx based army? Then simply make sure you have several sets of archers and advance into the archer's range and let them bring out the enemy or just pick them off one by one..

Having trouble defending your city from a massive army with only a few squads? Simply abandon the walls and run down to a main street(s) a position all your troops in a block to prevent the enemy coming down the street, works best with phalanx or spear infantry, the heavy kinds, also missile units are useful.

 

[Virgilthepagan]

Honestly? I'm a nut for Byzantine history, Medieval II scratches that itch, so I usually play as Byzantium/sometimes the Turks and then set off to conquer the west. It's fun, and a little more challenging since the Mongols will eventually show up to mess up your day.

Tactics?
Primarily I rely on horse archers to whittle down the enemy and to draw off their heavier cavalry, then drawing the infantry into my own Varangians. War axes mess up everyone's day, especially if you upgrade their armor. After the lines hit swing the horse archers around into the flanks and rear, and that can break the whole force if they commit early.

As for the campaign? For the east I always found it handy to pick a direction and ally/buddy up to everyone one way, then steamroll any faction in the other way.

Usually also for funsies, I'd deposit half a dozen Imams/Orthodox priests in Rome and assassinate the pope just to mess with the Catholics.

Have you tried mods also? They can add a lot to the game.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

Ask the other team really nicely to stop shooting me.

 

[No_Remainders]

Usually also for funsies, I'd deposit half a dozen Imams/Orthodox priests in Rome and assassinate the pope just to mess with the Catholics.

Have you tried mods also? They can add a lot to the game.

I had to assassinate 4 popes before there was an English one! Then there were 3 in a row. That was useful, having him on my side.

But yeah, I haven't got any mods yet, because I only got it last weekend, so I'll probably try some of the mods when I've finished a playthrough or two.

 

[Octorok]

Can't until I beat them in the game, which I haven't yet, because I'm only on my first playthrough.

To unlock the factions without playing the game forever -

1. Go to C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign. (EDIT : You mentioned you bought it on Steam, my bad. Go to your Steam directory.)

2. Open descr_strat.txt with notepad.

3. Copy the unlockable factions to playable. Save the file and close it.

On Topic: Depends who I'm playing. As England (the nation you sound like you're playing) I'll secure my isles then happily build up. The AI will never invade you over sea, so you're free to amass a large army and Zerg-rush the French all at once.

I'm a fan of infantry-heavy armies. I'll tend to be in a position where I can outmaneuver my opponent because of my extra infantry numbers, and I'll envelop them.

Also fun is, instead of using your infantry to encircle the enemy, use them to keep them fixed in melee and charge the enemy from the rear with cavalry.

 

[Bluntman1138]

Well, since you are playing England. Longbowman is the most devastating troop for Castle defense. Their special ability to drop stakes will stop every army. Just position them in front of your castles gate, and watch the enemy army flee in terror. (I once defended a Castle with 3 units of Longbowman and a Family member from 1500 men.

For more General Stratedies, Be sure to invest in a fleet, You need to protect your Ports for trade. Be sure to have priests, to carry favor with the Pope, and to keep you population in check. Merchants are a LIFEBLOOD, especially in Africa (There are 2 territories under Marakesh that earn you so much money.

Make sure you use you Family members wisely. Those with high Acumen are better suited to be Governors, but always get them a star or 2 from rebels, to help with loyalty.

Use your Princesses for scouting and diplomacy, and NEVER use them to make alliances (unless you are desperate)They will atract good Generals on their own in order to boost you military.

If a Pope is REALLY old, take the advantage and go to war with someone. If you are excommunicated, it doesnt mater, as when the Pope dies and a new one is elected, You will be re-communicated when the new pope takes over.

Troops that are part of a crusade have no maintence cost. So Crusades are a great way to get your daily income up if you are in the negatives or close to it.

Arbalesteers are the best archer unit. Once you get them, dont even worry about Gunners, they suck.

Calverns are just as devastating to units as they6 are walls when the unit has a good amount of expierence.

There are just a few. ALSO if go to Totalwar.org They have VAST selections of Mods, and such if you want enhancements to your game later on.

PS. Open the [game folder]\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\descr_strat.txt file with Notepad. You will see a list of the nations you can use in the beginning, the unlockable ones and the non-playables. Cut and paste the unlockable factions to the playable nations. Save the file. Some of them like Rebels, Pope and Monguls cant be played at all vanilla, so dont worry about copying and pasting them.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Alliances with the Papal States and bribing the Pope are the best way forward! I like to keep good allies in the game, because I find it makes it more interesting. It's a shame they always try to dick you over. Playing as England I tend to ignore France, I avoid getting involved in the mainland France/Germany area for as long as I can. I like invading Denmark across the North Sea. I play as England most often, but I like playing as Sicily, as the Papal States are a great land shield and you can invade Africa before everyone else and it's easy to get involved with most places.

As for actual battles, I like to keep a balanced army. I rely a lot on archers and heavy infantry. I don't use cavalry charges very much because I find they tend to inflict a lot of damage but also get slaughtered in the process.

 

[kickyourass]

Well, I've mostly played as England, but this should work for most factions. What I do in field battles is pin down the enemy with spearmen and light infantry, with any light cav hitting and running from behind the infantry. While that's happening I try to get my heavy Infantry as well as heavy cavalry behind the enemy a good solid charge will smash most units to bloody peices at that point.

Seige battles 1 ram 2 ladders, Peasents man the ram to let in my hordes, while a few units of heavy infanty clear the walls.

 

[BlackStar42]

I usually play as the Holy Roman Empire. First thing I do is take Hamburg, because that will utterly cripple Denmark's ability to make troops. Then, I take Metz and Bern so I have a defensive wall of castles along the Rhine to repel the French. On the second turn, Venice will always send a diplomat over- I sell them Bologna in exchange for 4000 florins and an alliance. Bologna is a war magnet, and I don't like being sneak-attacked. Then I build my economy, tech up and take out Denmark and Poland. By then I'm usually pretty unstoppable.

In terms of battle strategy, as most Western powers I get a front line of spears with archers on the flanks, and cavalry out of the way on the sides. The enemy gets pinned by my spears, I turn them into pincushions and finish off with cavalry charges to the enemy's rear. The cavalry on the sides tactic also helps you intercept any cavalry charges against your flanking archers.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

I'm a firm believer in non-aggression for as long as I can manage it. I typically spend the first turns taking rebel settlements as quickly as possible, but tend to avoid starting wars with the other Christian factions. God help em if they decide to declare war on me though. Strategically, I'm a firm believer in the defend-counterattack strategy. Better to kill a few thousand beneath city walls where I can limit my own casualties then out on the field where my men can suffer more.

As someone who plays as Russia often, I use my archer/capable infantry, dismounted Dvors along with their mounted counterparts with a line(Maybe 4 units) of Cossack musketeers to break cavalry charges before they can happen. I also tend to have some of the heaviest cavalry I can recruit at the time, going up to the Tsars Guards. Artillery is built as needed and replaces missile cavalry.

As far as tactics in battle go, I like to use superior cavalry to first destroy their cavalry and then break with a charge into their rear after they engage my infantry. This works for most any faction though particularly well for the Muslim factions, the Polish, Russians, and Hungarians.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

mass archers

win

the ai is so broken it's not even funny

 

[JaceArveduin]

On Rome there's an easy tactic: spam cavalry. You can literally wipe out an entire AI army with just your general/his guards if you can micro well. I usually tried to get a nice mix of heavy cavalry and horse archers, the only thing's you had to watch for are those accursed war chariots.