Similar to previous titles of the
Total War series, the game consists of two modes of play:
battles and
single-player
campaign. Battles can be played in multiplayer, in user-defined
scenarios, or in historical scenarios which simulate real battles such
as the
Battle of Arsuf or the
Battle of Agincourt. Battles are also featured in the campaign.
The game starts with a tutorial based on the
Battle of Hastings and the
Norman Conquest. The player first takes the role of
William Rufus, the son of the army commander
William the Conqueror.
His initial job is to provide a rearguard whilst the player learns the
game controls. Then he joins to fight in the main battle. The player
then concludes the tutorial with the conquest of
Saxon England. At Hastings, King Harold is erroneously depicted with the
Fleur-de-lis.
The campaign allows the player to assume control of a faction of the
time period, and build a civilization, both economically and militarily
in order to conquer other factions. Gameplay consists of controlling the
faction's military, economic, and social systems in large campaign
maps. During the player's turn, armies, fleets, and agents can be moved
on the map. When an army engages another army, the player can choose to
fight the battle personally in the battle mode, or automatically
calculate the outcome.
The goal of the campaign depends on which type of campaign is played.
The short campaign requires the player to defeat one or two enemy
factions (for example, Holy Roman Empire must defeat its historical
enemies Milan and Denmark) and control at least 15 settlements. The long
campaign requires the player to control at least 45 territories and one
or two significant cities, which are faction specific, such as
Jerusalem,
Granada,
Rome or
Constantinople.
Once the game is completed on any difficulty, the player may begin a
new Grand Campaign as any faction with the exception of the Papal
States, Mongols, Timurids, Aztecs (only encountered in the New World in
the late period) or Rebels.
Each faction controls a number of settlements, and must conquer others in order to continue growing. Unlike previous
Total War titles, there are two kinds of settlements, each with different advantages and disadvantages:
cities and
castles.
Castles have better defensive capabilities and have access to a larger
selection of professional soldiers, but generate less income, cannot
train as many priests as cities, and have no access to higher civilian
technologies. Cities generate much larger income and are technological
centres of a faction, but are more difficult to defend and only have
access to
militia
troops, which are generally inferior to those trained at castles except
for a select few unique units. A small quantity of militia troops,
stationed in the city where they have been trained, can be kept for
free, without upkeep cost, otherwise required to be paid every turn for
every army unit. Players may convert a settlement to a different type,
although larger cities may not be converted into castles. Castles also
need less population to be upgraded.
As in other
Total War
games, in each settlement the faction may construct a number of
buildings, each with different functions, such as training troops,
upgrading weapons and armour, expanding the economy, increasing the
settlement's defences or strengthening religion. A new feature of
Medieval II
is the ability to build guild halls. A given settlement may only have a
single guild hall, although there are several different types. The
guild hall provides certain bonuses such as increased movement for
troops, better weapons, or better agents; some even grant access to new
units, such as the ahistoric yet effective unit of "Sherwood Archers"
available to England upon construction and subsequent upgrade of a
Woodsmens' Guild. Guild halls may also be later upgraded to a "Master
Guild Hall", which may provide a larger bonus or even grant a bonus to
all of the faction's settlements while still retaining a more notable
bonus in the city the structure is built, and then possibly upgraded to
the "Guild Headquarters", which provides the greatest bonuses, although
each guild can have only one headquarters anywhere in the world at the
given time, and each faction can only construct one Master Guild Hall of
each guild in their empire. It is possible however, to capture a city
with an existing Master Guild Hall of a certain type, and have two of
one kind.
Each faction has a ruling family. Once male family members come
of age at 16, they act as units that can be used to govern settlements
and lead armies in battle as generals. Each character has attributes
that determine their prowess in both. A character's actions can affect
his attributes - for example, a general who routinely kills prisoners of war and
exterminates captured settlements may see his "dread" increase, making
him frightening to foes; a general who prefers to release prisoners and
occupy settlements may instead increase his "chivalry", which makes his
own troops much more brave. Characters also develop (or regress) by
gathering traits and retinue members. Characters can take after (or
rebel against) their parents, traits like alcoholism
are self-perpetuating, inbreeding tends to strengthen when inherited,
naivete and paranoia are mutually exclusive but both detrimental, etc.
Some traits, mostly positive, are brought out by victories in battle:
for example, generals can become increasingly scarred as time goes on,
giving them more hitpoints, and generals who successfully complete a
Crusade gain chivalry, command, and piety points. Others accumulate
while governing a city: poorly managed backwaters tend to bring out the
worst in generals, whereas advanced, central cities improve a general's
traits. Owners of strong traits earn epithets, such as "the Brave," "the
Just," "the Lewd" or "the Corrupt." These are decorative. A very
important aspect of generals is their loyalty. If a general is disloyal,
he may rebel, turning into the 'Rebels' faction and taking a part of
the army at his command with him. The faction leader has an 'authority'
rating instead of loyalty. Higher authority makes disloyal generals less
likely to rebel.
Captains are leaders of armies that do not have a family member
controlling them. They don't have any special attributes or retinue, but
if killed in battle troop morale decreases, increasing the chance that
the army will rout. If killed or assassinated, a new captain will
instantly appear and take command of the army in question. If a captain
is victorious in a particularly one sided battle or has shown excellent
leadership, he may become 'Man of the Hour', and comes with an option to
adopt him into the Royal Family. If adopted, he turns into a general
and may gain attributes and retinue. If declined, he continues to be a
generic captain. An army left with only a captain may rebel and join the
rebel faction.
Each faction has a number of agents it may use to maintain order and
influence other factions. These include the Priests/Imams, as well as
princesses,
diplomats,
merchants,
assassins and
spies.
Each agent has attributes that develop the more he is able to
successfully be used. Princesses, for example, have a "Charm" attribute
that governs their success in diplomacy and the likelihood that a
proposal in marriage will be accepted. Spies and Assassins have a
"Subterfuge" attribute which governs how likely they are to infiltrate
enemy cities or find information about enemy armies. All agents except
princesses are trained at settlements which contain the appropriate
buildings - for example, Christian priests can be trained in any
settlement with a
church or
chapel. Princesses are born into the player's ruling family, and become active as agents once they come of age at 16.
Diplomacy is performed by diplomats and princesses and functions much as in previous
Total War games, mainly involving negotiating treaties such as cease fires, alliances and marriages and wars.
The interface for negotiation has changed from previous games, however;
a new system has been integrated to show the other faction's attitude
toward the player's faction, intelligence estimates (such as how wealthy the faction is and what other factions they are at war with), as well as how fair the other faction feels the player's proposals are.
Inquisitors are controlled by The Papal States and are sent to the
player's lands if you have fallen out of favour with the Pope. They can
accuse any agent of heresy, and if they are found guilty, they will be
executed. Generals, and even a player's King, may fall prey to these
agents of God. To get rid of Inquisitors, you can gain favour with the
Pope by building churches and converting the population, and avoid
attacks on any more favourable Christian nations, or perhaps even
attempt to assassinate them.
