Total war medieval II gameplay help

[ramza]

I am playing as the Byzantines and I am currently facing both the Mongols and a Jihad against my capital. So far, I have managed to drive back 3 armies of Turks and Egyptians but the Mongols just have started attacking me as well. I have a castle under siege and have a lot of archer, mounted archer and spearmen units in it. I think I can manage to drive back the Mongolian army but the key to winning this battle is bringing down the battering ram. Then, I can lay waste to them with my archers.

 

So far, I have been unsuccessful in doing so. I have clicked on the "flame arrow" icon and made all my archer units target the battering ram. No matter how many arrows they send flying, the enemy battering ram is showing 0% damage. How can I destroy the damn thing? In previous battles, my units would occasionally bring down the ram without me giving any specific orders but now that I need them to do this specific task, they won't cooperate. Instead, they torch up a tower or kill a few enemy soldiers here and there. It's really frustrating. It's a good game nonetheless.

 

I play the vanilla game without any mods on normal difficulty. I am reluctant to installing mods as this may make the enemy AI tougher to beat. It's my first playthrough and I am doing so-so. If I improve the AI, I am sure the enemies will beat me up in no time.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Gorgon]

Only the flaming balista on the wall or you own trebuches or similar units can bring down the ram, the normal balistas usually aren't enough, and you can't aim it if you dont control the unit. You need improved fortifications for the balista to be flaming in the first place. You might want to consider opening the gate to keep them from crossing the wall in several different places. Spearmen with decent morale are ideal to plug the hole.

 

Also Byzantines get nafatun (molotov ****tail throwers) if placed above the gate they have just enough range to pelter the enemy while they try to break in. Siege towers can be destroyed by infantry but it takes a very long time, usually not worth it. The ram can't be destroyed by infantry but you should be able to steal it (alt click for the hand icon to come up) then just run it inside. This is also a rare opportunity though.

Edited March 9, 2010 by Gorgon

[Monte Carlo]

Fire arrows are slightly nerfed in MTW:2. You need the next tier of city defences to burn them properly (flame ballistae, burning oil etc).

 

Byzantines are a tricky faction, even on normal difficulty in the vanilla game (the others being the Holy Roman Empire). My personal tactic for taking out enemy siege engines is to create a small force of light cavalry (3-4 squadrons) and let them sally into the battering ram, kill 3/4 of the unit operating it, then retreating them back into the castle. Your archers should do the rest.

 

Do this until you tech up and are able to deal with siege engines, or alternatively play as England. Being an island you won't get invaded, you get longbows which used properly are a big shiny WIN button.

 

Cheers

MC

[Monte Carlo]

Thinking about my last answer, you get outrageously powerful cavalry as Byzantium. If you are prepared to sacrifice a unit of Cataphracts (or whatever they're called in MTW:2) then this ain't a problem. Charge them full pelt into the infantry using the ram, preferably from a flank, and they should panic and run off. You will lose the heavy cav unit, but it might well be a sacrifice worth making.

[Gorgon]

Also, you definately want the Crusades adon. It's the best of the DLC packs by a long shot. The Byzantines are a powerhouse and have a load of special units.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Yeah, but scandalously the TW:Empires add-on features don't port into the vanilla game. Happily, there is a mod that rectifies this (Retrofit and Kingdoms Grand Campaign mods). Ramza, get empires and the mod that segues all the features into MTW:2 vanilla campaign. It makes a brilliant game awesome.

 

For example, you kick off the campaigns on the British Isles with the Scots, Welsh, Irish and English. You get all the different units. It's extremely good.

[RPGmasterBoo]

1. If you have cavalry charge the ram as its coming to your walls. Use mounted archers with the melee attack. Dont actually let them fight, retreat right after the charge impacts the ram. The enemy is stupid, you can flank attack anything with light cavalry. A coordinated attack can cause massive fear, I've defeated 10 times stronger tactics through repeating actually quite ineffectual charges until full rout. When they turn their backs to run, run them down like grass. Slaughter two or three units like this and that's it.

In fact, forget the ram, just charge the weakest enemy units, prefferably peasants and the like. Through fear you can win 90% of ME2 battles.

 

or

 

2. flame arrows have a random chance of setting fire to a ram. Just try it until it works. Good luck with that though.

 

Combat in ME2 is neither as clever nor as tactical as it appears, only the vastly overpowered enemies like the Mongols are truly problematic. You'll get the hang of it.

 

I was winning absurdly difficult battles several days into the game. Remember: cavalry is everything, a mix of cavalry archers and medium cavalry should handle almost everything you need.

[Gorgon]

By the way has anyone played Napoleon total war. The reviews sort of suggests its un fantasticness, still it would be nice to play a version of Empires not riddled with bugs. I don't think I have played a single campaign without running into problems, either with the save games or the turns taking ages and ages after a single faction becomes very big.

[Niten_Ryu]

Mongols are tough opponent for Byzantine and Russia. I think I lost 50% of the my area to Mongols last campaign as Russia. I don't have any real advice as it's just about impossible to get anyone else to attack 'em (they might declare war but don't seem to send troops) so basically you have to deal with 'em alone. Or play something like Sweden or England and ignore 'em complitely

 

I haven't bought Napoleon Total War yet as it's sure to be cheap in next Steam holiday sales and by that time developers have fixed most of the bugs.

[ramza]

Man, it was an absolute disaster. I lost 1500 men and just killed 700 enemies. They took the city and slayed the survivors. The battle lasted almost half an hour. I can't understand why I can torch up battle towers (I managed to take one down) and not this damn battering ram.

 

I targeted with all my archers the soldiers running the ram but then they were just replaced by other ones. I had no choice than to send my cavalry to kill them but for some reason the gate didn't close after they re-entered the castle. I have an earlier save so I will be trying until I win.

[Gorgon]

Just let them in the front gate and hit them from all sides. You could also place artillery outside your walls, they will be destroyed, but they have a decent chance of taking out the ram first.

[Monte Carlo]

Your kill ratio is ass-backwards and it's one of the annoying things about MTW:2, the manpower ratio for attacking a fixed position should favour the defender against odds of at least 3:1.

 

Mongol hordes in MTW:2 are also broken, legions of elite infantry / archer hybrids, super-powerful heavy cav and freaking nebelwerfer style rocket batteries. That's why I play as England and deal with them in the high medieval period when I get some decent arty on the field and firearms. I have defeated them, the easiest way to degrade the horde is repeated assassinations to weaken their bloodline. Five-stack armies led by a one-star general are much easier to pulverize.

 

Mind you, as a reminder of the all-round scariness of the rampaging mongol horde that makes you gulp when you see them appear on the map, CA did a pretty good job.

 

Cheers

MC

[Gorgon]

Just ignoring them is actually an option, they will take Byzantium but you can find a new home for your nation. Lower egypt or Serbian lands. Then return when their stacks have spread out and deminished.

 

One of my favorite games was with the Turkish, they are in a terrible starting position which can be improved and fortified, but the Mongols will still come and ruin most of your buildings anyway. Instead I immediately started a jihad against England, all of my generals and jihadists easily looted everything in their path on the way since it was so early in the game, and by the time I took London I had enough cash to rebuild there.

[Gorgon]

Keep an eye out for mercenaries after the Mongol invasion, you can buy elephant artillery in Egypt.

[ramza]

The problem is that I didn't plan things carefully. I kept being attacked by Hungary on the West and Turkey/Egypt on the East (actually they didn't attack my outer cities but focused on Constantinople) and had to spend all my efforts on those 2 fronts. When I got notified about the Mongols' first apparition, the message said they had appeared near Bagdad. So, I was hoping they would first destroy the Turks and part of the Egyptian empire before they actually made it to my territory. Then, I would seize the opportunity to grab as many cities as I could since these 3 factions would be left weakened from their constant fighting. But no, the mongols didn't take Bagdad. They conquered an egyptian city near my borders and, from there, started invading both my territory and egypt's territory. Egypt is crumbling to dust, so I am all alone in this fight.

 

My castle has the maximum number of units available (I also have reinforcement troops stationed next to my castle) but unfortunately I don't have any heavy cavalry. I just have plenty of archers of spearmen and a few mounted archers. My only hope is taking down the ram and rout them. On the next turn, I can manage to bring in my assassin closer and start killing their generals.

 

The AI is kinda stupid and that makes things less easier for me.

[Gorgon]

If you have a full stack in a city all you have to worry about is morale, the enemy will be hard pressed to defeat you with numbers. Try placing half your force outside the walls, on the flanks of their assault, then box them in when they hit the walls. If your infantry loses their morale check they will be doomed though, as it can only be recovered instide the walls during sieges.

[Gorgon]

The main problem with the mongols is that they don't break easily and when they reform, nearly all their units have bows to pelter your pursuing units with. In a city I usually let them in and make sure most of my forces are positioned to intercept. If you can destroy all their artillery breaking them is possible though.

[Niten_Ryu]

Oh yeah, if you ever manage to kill Mongols,

it'll most likely take so long that you soon have to fight Timurid hordes - Who are even nastier opponents

. Have fun!

Edited March 9, 2010 by Niten_Ryu

[Tigranes]

I like the Byzantines but the Mongols were massively annoying. As they should be, I guess, but I never understood why they got all sorts of elite infantry and artillery units. Usually, because I'd be the regional power long before that, I'd keep a buffer of vassal states and hope they took a pounding while my assassins killed their entire family off.

 

After that, you never ever want to face them in the open field because their freaking horse archers will run around randomly all over the battle map for 3 freaking hours. Seriously. Once I tried turning off battle limit and sitting there with highly armoured troops, they just run around and kill like 2 people. You want to get them in forests, bridges or hell, I normally let them take a castle then sieged it, letting them try and break out - that's where they are the least effective.... and the AI most retarded. The AI armies sallying from sieges look less organised than a swarm of ants going after honeycombs.

[Gorgon]

Ottoman Spihari are quite effective at countering those annoying horse archers, but the battles generally take way too long and you will be chasing after them trying to rout them long after they have lost any chance of winning. Set the battle timer to low 20-30 mins and defend rather than attack. That ways you can always fast forward if it gets too boring.

[ramza]

Hell yeah! I finally beat the crap out of them! It was a long and tedious battle but I really enjoyed it. I first took down all the soldiers using the battering ram with my horsed archers and archers on my walls. As I started routing the soldiers that were coming up my walls with ladders and towers, I noticed a second battering ram coming up my way. I started panicking and ordered all my archers to shoot at it. I actually didn't manage to bring it down and it even broke my gate. Fortunately for me, many of my spearmen had survived the first wave and I had them ready just behind the gate. A big battle then ensued and I thought I was gonna lose as their heavy cavalry was stampeding on my soldiers, but then I killed their general and they lost their morale. Needless to say that I wiped them up as they started running in all directions.

 

On the next turn, I even killed their faction leader with my assassin. I hope I will manage to bring down these damn Mongolians. They are too much trouble.

Anyway, TW:M2 is a great game. Even unmodded, I am having a blast!

[RPGmasterBoo]

I grew extremely annoyed with the ineptitude of the combat AI and ditched the game.

[ramza]

Ok, I used the same strategy against another mongolian army that knocked at my door and it worked perfectly, even better. I am also assassinating their leaders little by little but they are still pushing back the Egyptian armies. I have to destroy them before they take over too many settlements and become too strong. Oh, and the Jihad against Constantinople failed. Now, I am getting some reprieve to focus on the Mongols.

 

I still wonder how I am gonna meet the victory conditions. I have the impression we (all the factions) have arrived at standstill. There isn't any real progress being made for 30 turns already. Me vs Turks, Mongols, Egypt, Venice and Hungary (even though the latter haven't annoyed me for quite a while now), the Mongols vs the Turks and Egypt, Venice vs Sicily, Hungary vs Holy empire... No cities are being taken, just one army pushing back another. I have to take advantage of the Mongol Invasion to eradicate the Turks and take over Jerusalem. Venice just has five cities, so I may be able to conquer them once I deal with my eastern front.

 

I just love Byzantium, it's really a challenge playing them.

[cronicler]

Try to build up a "punch" on the side. A medium sized field army composed of Horse Archers and Cataprachts to punch and Infantry (positioned in defensive arease) to hold can give you a lot of breathing room if you can manage them carefully and keep them alive.