Medieval Total War.

[stormcrow 0]

Does anyone else play this war strategy?

I have been on a campaign with the spanish during early period, and have so far managed to conquer almost half of Europe........only the French armies stand in my way .....................muhahahahaha

For those who dont know about this game.................TOTALWAR

Good news ( for me I guess, and anyone else who plays) they are now doing a version set during the Roman empire....................HRRRRMMMM.....ROME.......

Not only has Rome: Total WarTM won best strategy game of E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2003, held in Los Angeles) from Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2003 , GameSpy and IGN.

Also runner up for PC game of show from IGN and 4th best game of the show (all formats) from Gamespy. Rome: Total War has also been included in Gamespot's top ten PC Games of E3 (at no.5).

Edited September 20, 2003 by stormcrow

[budgie 1]

I became addicted to the predecessor Shogun:Total War in 2000. I have also played Medieval (same engine) and am looking forward to the Rome version which will sport a new engine and better graphics. the only thing that bugs me is that in empire-building campaign mode, there are four difficulty settings which are unbalanced. The first is too easy and the next three insanley hard. I always found myself short of cash and behind in the technology tree compared to the AI opponents in level 2.

As for the real meat - the battles: These are flawless, realistic, well balanced and far exceed anything of their kind in any other game to date. This is the most realistic sim of mass battlefield tactics that I have ever seen in real time.

[firefly2442 0]

Oh yeah! I play this game all the time. Looking forward to Rome Total War. The new graphics engine should be awesome!

[Syncopator 0]

Just started playing online via Gamespy.

Interesting indeed - 4v4 huge battles.

Gettin my behind kicked off the park a bit too often though...hrrrmmmfff.

[supasniper 0]

i play quite a lot, i'm playing as the picts and i own 2/3 of the UK

for those of us in the UK have you seen the TV prog Time Commanders? that seems to use Rome Total War for the battles in it.

[budgie 1]

Gettin my behind kicked off the park a bit too often though...hrrrmmmfff.

That's the balance problem in multiplay. Defenders ususally have the advantage so a technically weaker army can fend off a larger/stronger attacker if they have a good enough general.

Now when you play MP, the armies are even so the defender usually has the upper hand from the start. This is what I have found playing Shogun, online. When I attacked I lost most games and the reverse when I defended. When I set up random battles for SP, I always give the defender 25% less money to spend.

However, in Medieval there is a dizzying array of units. It may just be that regardless of having even cash to spend or your starting position, you need to pick the right army to win in MP. Can't say for sure as I've never played MP in Medieval, but it looks like the variety would accomdate this. As a general rule an attacking army needs to be very mobile, with lots of cavalry and fast infantry, while a defending army can be more static with archers and artillery.