Medieval Total War

[Sir Slash]

Twentieth anniversary of Medieval 1. Gotcha, not Medi 2. I had forgotten there was a '1'. Makes way more sense to me now. 

[Martok]

Question for Gusington, should you care to answer:  I seem to recall you may have played as Kiev before.  If so, I'd welcome your input as I determine where to expand next (now that I've taken my immediately neighboring territories).   

I know I probably want to acquire a port province with trade goods ASAP.  However, I'm debating whether I ought to go north towards the Baltic, or south to the Black Sea.  The former option likely means war with Poland, Lithuania, or both; while the latter route requires taking out the Cumans (who I'm already at war with), and possible conflict with the Byzantines as well (eep! ). 

[Gusington]

The last time I played as Kiev was in a medieval mod for Rome 2, believe it or not, and it turned into quite a never-ending slog as all of my surrounding enemies were on par with me in strength and power. IIRC I had a never-ending war with Poland, so...I would not recommend that.

For the first Medieval game, I don't remember playing as Kiev. That said I do not remember the Cumans being that difficult to beat if you invest in knights, cavalry archers and of course armored spears.

[Grim.Reaper]

All this talk recently on total war making me want to start playing again:)

[Gusington]

^Me too. And I do not own the original Medieval TW on Steam either...

[Grim.Reaper]

Wonder how it works nowadays, reading the forum suggests might have difficulties with newer operating systems

[Gusington]

^ I saw that - for 3.00 I am willing to take the risk.

[Martok]

The last time I played as Kiev was in a medieval mod for Rome 2, believe it or not, and it turned into quite a never-ending slog as all of my surrounding enemies were on par with me in strength and power. IIRC I had a never-ending war with Poland, so...I would not recommend that.

Gotcha.  That's still helpful as a guide, especially since I'm in a similar situation -- including a Poland whose strength is currently close to my own.  Thanks! 

For the first Medieval game, I don't remember playing as Kiev. That said I do not remember the Cumans being that difficult to beat if you invest in knights, cavalry archers and of course armored spears.

Yep, I've already got horse archers in my army.  I also have my Grand Prince and his sons with their Boyar bodyguards, which double as both horse archers and heavy cavalry.  And even better than Armored Spearmen (though I can recruit those as well), Kiev has access to Rus Spearmen; they're expensive, but very, very good.     

[Martok]

All this talk recently on total war making me want to start playing again:)

Excellent.   

Wonder how it works nowadays, reading the forum suggests might have difficulties with newer operating systems

Sadly, yes this does appear to be the case.  I myself have been fortunate enough to have not had any problems, though I seem to be lucky in general when it comes to being able to run older games on newer machines/OS's.  <knocks on wood> 

Either way, MTW goes on sale frequently enough (along with the rest of the franchise) that -- as Gusington noted -- you can grab it for only a few dollars.  If the game ends up not wanting to run on your computer, at worst, you're not out that much money.  (And if you've only played the game for 2 hours or less, you can get a refund from Steam anyway.) 

[Grim.Reaper]

Yep, those cost would never hold me back, just whether worth the time to mess around with it:)

But with that said, did buy it out of curiosity to see how it holds up nowadays:)  Quickly launched it and no immediate crashes, played a quick battle and promptly got beat by the computer a usual:)

Although the game has options for my hi-res monitor, really didn't work and played with big black box around the screen, but absolutely was usable.  In fact I was a little surprised by the graphics.  Certainly not the same quality as nowadays, but far better than I thought they would be.  One thing I have struggled with in newer versions, is the pacing of the calvary.  From what I recall, I often saw when marching, the cavalry would outpace the troops in front of it and it was tough keeping them behind and staying in formation.  Within this game, I immediately noticed the calvary performing as it should, without me having to micro manage it, very refreshing.  Battle defiantly seemed slower paced which I always enjoy.

Maybe sometimes the original is better than newer stuff, who knows, I am going to further play around with it to see how it goes...hopefully don't experience problems, but for a small amount of money, nice to go back into time...

[Undercovergeek]

Oooo the original with chess piece like armies ?

[Gusington]

^Yessir, similar but better than the original Shogun.

I’m going to buy later on today when I’m back at my rig, the nostalgia is too much to bear.

Martok - you mentioned you’re playing with the XL mod - one of my favorite mods of all time. I even did a review of it for Wargamer 1000 years ago.
 
Is it available on Steam workshop? If not where’d you get it?

[Martok]

Yep, those cost would never hold me back, just whether worth the time to mess around with it:)

But with that said, did buy it out of curiosity to see how it holds up nowadays:)  Quickly launched it and no immediate crashes, played a quick battle and promptly got beat by the computer a usual:)

Although the game has options for my hi-res monitor, really didn't work and played with big black box around the screen, but absolutely was usable.  In fact I was a little surprised by the graphics.  Certainly not the same quality as nowadays, but far better than I thought they would be. 

Awesome, glad the game runs for you!  Yeah, the graphics obviously can't remotely compare to those in the newer entries, but they're actually not bad, considering their age.  And for me personally, considering how much I tend to fight my battles zoomed out anyway, the sprite-style units in combat are honestly good enough for me. 

One thing I have struggled with in newer versions, is the pacing of the calvary.  From what I recall, I often saw when marching, the cavalry would outpace the troops in front of it and it was tough keeping them behind and staying in formation.  Within this game, I immediately noticed the calvary performing as it should, without me having to micro manage it, very refreshing.  Battle defiantly seemed slower paced which I always enjoy.

Maybe sometimes the original is better than newer stuff, who knows, I am going to further play around with it to see how it goes...hopefully don't experience problems, but for a small amount of money, nice to go back into time...

Indeed.   


Not that Medieval 1 is perfect, obviously -- playing it again has removed a good bit of my nostalgia filters, and allowed me to better recognize its flaws ("Man, I really wish this game had [x feature]", "I hate that it does [z thing]", etc.).  But there's so much that MTW gets *right*, that I still find it to be a genuinely fun & amazing game, even after 20+ years. 

[Martok]

Martok - you mentioned you’re playing with the XL mod - one of my favorite mods of all time. I even did a review of it for Wargamer 1000 years ago.

Yep, it's the XL Mod that adds Kiev as a playable faction (the Cumans as well, for that matter).  It just makes Medieval a better game all around in my experience. 


And you'd better believe I remember your Wargamer review of XL, as it was what nudged me into trying it out.   

At the time, there were 3 main mods for MTW (not counting total-conversion mods like Pike & Musket, Samurai Warlords, etc.):  WesMod, BKB Supermod, and XL Mod.  WesMod was the oldest & most well-established, BKB had lately become the most popular, and XL was the newest.  I'd been playing the base game for long enough that I was starting to look around for a mod to add a little something "extra", and of course everyone had their favorite.  Then right around the time I started hanging around the Wargamer, your review of the XL Mod dropped, and the rest is history.   


 

Is it available on Steam workshop? If not where’d you get it?

There is no Steam workshop for MTW, unfortunately.  I'm guessing it was deemed not worth the effort of adding it. 

If memory serves, I grabbed the XL mod from Total War Center.  Link to the forum thread is here, and direct link to the download itself is here. 

[Gusington]

^Fantastic, thanks Martok.

Hard to believe that more than two decades later I am going for the XL mod once again.

Testament to how much I loved this game. Now to pray that it all works on my rig...