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Awesome Game - With one exception

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: February 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the best strategy games that I have every played. It sucessfully combines world domination with micro management of troops. There is certainly room for improvement, however, this is the best yet. I played it with a passion for a few weeks.
The flaw...I was so excited at playing the campains I wanted to play with a friend. You cannot imagine my disappointment when I discovered that you can only play the battles over LAN. I was so insensed that I gave up the game. If I have one suggestion for the manufacturers of the game it is to make it playable over LAN/Internet, with the global domination aspect still intact.

great strategy...s***t tactical

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: July 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

while this is an excellent strategy game, i found the tactical side to be lacking. it is lengthy, drawn out and, from my experience, impossible to complete. i managed to control all but one province and just as i invaded that one province there were no fewer than a dozen rebellions. it's just annoying

not bad for a little while

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 17
Date: May 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

for the price it's worth buying. don't waste you money on the follow up Rome. game are supposed to get better not worse. If your bored at 3 am it's worth playing for a few hours.

i agree with both of the above

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: January 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

while the second reviewer is right to give this game the best review of the century, the first reviewer has a good point too. this game is amazing. shogun total war was excellent but this blows it out the water. the graphics, the handling everything is incredible well made. but like the first reviewer says, prepare for rebellion. if you are frustrated easily with games then dont get this. i had the same problem with rebellion. just as i was about to conquer the world, i was beset by several beaten kingdoms all wanting their land back at the same time. and as for the papacy... it just doesnt make sense when you knock them out the game, only for them to come back three times as strong a few turns later. this stops me from saying this game is perfect. it does have flaws. but those flaws can be dealt with using determination and heavy cavalry.

Only one complaint

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: February 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Since the excellentnessnessness of this game has been expounded upon, I have only one beef with the Battle Collection edition.

You get one game and one expansion pack (if you didn't read the product description). Without the expansion pack, there is an insanely unfair (but ludicrously fun) axe-wielding light cavalry available only to the Egyptians. It is nearly impossible for the Europeans to defeat them - until the advent of armored spearmen, that is. Using these six-legged terrors (two for the axeman, four for the horse, brainiacs) and a complex network of ships, it is possible for your men to enjoy a meal of baba ghanoush while visiting Sweden. So cool.....

You may notice that this is not, truthfully, what happened. I tell you that this does not, truthfully, matter. The game is a riot. If you think these units are unfair, just install the expansion pack and they go away. THAT, my friends, is my only complaint.

Oh, yeah, download the patch so that all of your generals don't die at the age of 50. Kinda stinks when that happens. Then again, a 170-year-old general is sort of anti-historical too.

Medieval total war says it all

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Excellent game. The graphics are not up to par with Imperial Glory or Code Name Panzers but that is high end.
Game Pros. are the numerous regions to control and the dozen or so empires or nations to rule. Large number of units to chose from and certain regions recruit special units. Large number of Battle modifiers: weather, moral of leader and troops plus type of terrain units are fighting in and a Good AI. The addon Viking Invasion is a good way to update the old MTW version. Game save options and special campaigns and battles.
Game Cons. are simple terrain and building graphics, unit graphics, treaties with opposing nations are to simple or lack dept. Trade routes are generalized as with marinetime warfare and marinetime trade.

This is da strategy game for anyone.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Medieval: Total War is super easy to learn. Gamers who are starting to be attracted to strategy or war games should begin here. The whole object of the game is to either dominate the world or stun the world with glorius achievements. The graphics don't compare to that of Rome: Total War's, but the gameplay is better. The Expansion Pack: Viking Invasion adds a Vikings Campaign, new civilazations along with new army units. Anyone will be thirsty to DOMINATE THE MEDEIVAL WORLD!

Excellent strategy game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 69 / 70
Date: December 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is the first Total War title I bought (yup, I'm one of the five that didn't play Shogun. Give me a moment to cut holes in this paper bag so I might hide my shame and continue...) and I consider it one of the better game investments I've made to date. Though its graphics are dated by current standards- especially compared to the latest installment in the series- Medieval is a whole load of fun.

As with the other games in the series, Medieval is split into two modes- the strategic map, where you build up you provinces, manage taxes, dispatch strategic agents, and move armies; and the real time battlefield, where you lay siege to cities, face off against rival armies, and generally show off your tactical prowess (or lack thereof). Both are well done, and so this game can appeal to both fans of turn based strategy and real time strategy. I happen to be one of the latter and definitely not one of the former (in fact, I absolutely hate Civilization and its spinoffs) but I found myself enjoying both aspects of the game.

The battlefield AI is relatively well schooled in standard tactics, and units move and act realistically. For example, archers are likely to miss when shooting into or out of a forest, or in bad weather. Heavy cavalry will naturally mow down anyone with light armor, but has serious problems with spear or pike-armed soldiers in tight ranks. Standing on higher ground gives missile weapons more range, and artillery landing in the middle of your troops has serious negative effects on morale. There's no base building to worry about in battle mode, which is fortunate since you'll have plenty to think about as is. Though it's sometimes quite complex managing all your men, there's nothing better than winning a great victory and knowing that it was your superior tactics (not your ability to micromanage harvesters) that let you pull it off. The graphics, while not the best, are passable. Terrain and weather effects are generally dependent on the area you're fighting in, which is a nice touch.

On the strategic map, you can perform all kinds of actions- quell uprisings, dispatch assassins, send preachers to convert the heathen, manage trade routes and fleets, propose alliances or declare war, and otherwise plot for world domination. This mode is absent in multiplay, but the depth of the single play campaign more than makes up for it. You can play as any major power in the medieval era, and have the entire European continent, plus much of western Asia to conquer. Many provinces have trade resources, allow for the training of special units, or provide bonuses to units produced there. Of note is that your unique national units are likewise based on ownership of certain provinces- if you lose these, you could end up facing them in battle! Hopefully, if you're a wise national leader, this will never happen.

There are three period campaigns, and many major historical events and personages appear over the course of your rule. Some units only appear in certain periods, and if you start in an earlier period, you will eventually advance to the later ones (and to the end- alas, the medieval age can't last forever). Building stronger fortifications in your territories serves two purposes- it lets you hold out better if put under siege, and it allows you to make other structures that in turn allow training of more advanced units. Some such units (e.g. English longbowmen, Gothic knights, halberdiers, or the Byzantine's elite Varangian Guard) are war-winning in power, so this must be a national priority. You can also resort to such things as inquisitions, bribes, crusades, and jihads to stymie or conquer your enemies.

Managing your provinces and armies is quite an involved process. As they say, the devil's in the details, and there's details to spare in Medieval. You want to make sure that your battle-hardened veteran units are kept at high strength, perhaps at the cost of some cheap or less experienced troops. You also have to make sure you don't go broke which is (believe me) a lot harder than it sounds. Armies in the field cost money to support, and you need loads of money to build up provinces. Thus, it might not be a good idea to invade all your neighbors at once, as this would likely have a detrimental effect on trade. In this respect, Medieval truly asks that you be a politician as well as a conqueror.

This collection includes Viking Invasion, which is a special campaign that lets you play as one of the factions living in the British Isles or as the infamous Viking raiders. It has significantly different units and tech trees from the standard Medieval campaign, and adds some of these units to the original game. Being Viking in particular gives you some unique capabilities (e.g. the ability to retreat over sea without a port in the province) that alone are worth checking out.

Aside from campaign and online battle modes, there's a few small historical campaigns and battles, including such famous engagements as Crecy, Bannockburn, and Poitiers. Some are incredibly difficult, and a true test for the armchair generals out there. Just as interesting, most of the single play modes have historical summaries of the battle or campaign, which (to me at least) was quite fascinating.

Medieval: Total War might have the look of an older game, but it is a great value that no strategy gamer should pass up. The replay value in particular is enormous, and there's innumerable possible tactical and strategic maneuvers. Just finding which ones of these work, and which ones don't, is months of fun. Don't miss out.

It's Good To Be King

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 34 / 34
Date: April 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Choices, choices. You are holding several hundred prisoners after your brilliant triumph outside Paris. Klll them, as an example to other upstarts? Or ransom them for 2000 florins? And here's a pesky crusade. You can fight it or let it pass, but it may sack your city (as they often did) on the way through.

This is a classic of its kind, dramatically improving upon "Shogun, Total War" in terms of strategic and tactical AI, weapons sets, and complexity. For fans of strategy/RTS games whose computers tap out at early XP games, the "Medieval War" and "Viking Invasion" games are very immersive. If I were to have only one or two strategic games on my computer, this would be one of them.

The hook to the "Total War" series is the merger of a sound turn-based strategic game with RTS tactical land battles using historical-based units such as knights, ballistas and various types of infantry and archers. The design is British, so there is a lot of military detail here. Unlile the "Civilization" games, civilian amenities and advances take a back seat to the evolution of military technology, from rudimentary melee infrantry units to the early age of gunpowder.

The real time land battles are fun, and actually are important to game play since an outnumbered army, well-generaled and carefully used, can defeat a larger force and alter the shape of history. I have replicated a number of Agincourts and Crecys with the right mix of "Band of Brothers" longbowmen and mounted knights. On the other hand, I've had a few 14th c. "Custer's last stands" as well.

What is intriguing about the strategic campaign games is that the AI throws new punches as your empire expands. In "Medieval", revolts are frequent. In "Viking", I had several empires collapse in a few years into civil war among factions. I also experimented with Machiavellian "Prince" strategies, such as allying close weak countries against larger threats. Most of the time, it worked, like the real thing.

The gaming system obviously lends itself to any pre-1900 conflict, and it would be interesting if the fourth or fifth in the series tried to tackle 18th Century warfare, the English or American Civil wars.

For a 2002-3 game, this was a tremendous development. There are still some weakpoints, such as the 1000-man limit on tactical battles. On the strategic map, the armies can be infinite in size, but the tactical engine requires that units over the 1000-man limit must wait out as reinforcements. After a while, one learns that no matter how large an invading force, a mixed out defensive army (say 1200), if properly configured and kept close to the reinforcement edge of the map, can often win as the enemy AI feeds the remaining hundreds in a drabble at a time.

While land battles are meticulously modeled, naval conflict is pretty sketchy, but then, decisive naval battles were genuinely rare before Lepanto. I appreciated the careful introduction of gunpowder units which make their appearance generally in the 14th c., and the fact that man for man, they still lag behind good stout Welsh longbowmen for quite a while.

The only other RTS games I have played are "pure" battle systems such as Waterloo or Sid Meyer's "Gettysburg" series. The "Total War" games are superior to both plus you get a fine strategic turn-based game to go with it.

Break out the Trebuchet---time to get Medieval on their A**

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: December 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It is 1195 A.D. according to the Christian calendar; Year 583 from the date of the Prophet's Hijra. You rest your bloody gauntlet on the parapet of Vienna's formerly impregnable citadel; a troop of proud Ghulam cavalry parade through the Vienna Castle's smoldering and sundered South gate, stark and splendid on their black Arabian stallions, the sun glinting off their spired helms.

You gaze westward: towards the fog-enshrouded forests on the horizon, the arboreal ramparts of the German Empire. You have advanced the cause of the Caliph and the Sultan Suleyman: today the Turkish army crushed the warriors of the Holy Roman Emperor, driving the panicked Crusaders in a frenzied rout across the Danube. Already the Sultan's assassins and holy-men slip north and west, moving like shadows through Bavaria, into Bohemia, into the very guts of the Empire: Franconia, Brandenburg, Saxony. You gaze upward, over Vienna's loftiest tower: even now, your fierce Turkish infantry are raising up the Crescent of the Sultan. Soon your armies will be on the move again: soon the glory of Istanbul, and the divine will of Allah, will spread across Europe.

"Medieval: Total War" (the Battle Collection, including the Viking Invasion expansion) allows you to literally rewrite history, at the point of the sword, at the altar of conversion, and in the counting houses and countless emporiums of your traders, which spread like wildfire as trade follows the flag, the military, and the Navy.

I can say right now, as a gaming addict, that "Medieval: Total War" is the finest Real-Time-Simulation (RTS) game yet invented.

The Middle Ages are split into three periods: Early (1095), Middle (1200), and Late (1320); choose one of them, and then plunge into a Power of the day. There are twelve to choose from: England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, Poland, Russia, Italy, Spain. Go eastward, rule Constantinople with the Byzantine Empire. Or cast down the Cross and hold up the Crescent, fulfilling the will of the Prophet by taking up the gauntlet of the Turks, Egypt, or the Almohad Caliphate, stretching like a snake across North Africa.

The game is split between the Tactical and the Strategic. In the Strategic phase, you plan your maneuvers on a gorgeous world map (Europe, Russia, Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa). In this phase you build up your armies, fortify and develop your provinces, build border forts and upgrade them to castles and even citadels, muster your forces, and send them off to war. You also send out your agents: your assassins, diplomats, princesses---to kill, convert, reason with, or marry your rivals.

The tactical phase begins when your strategic moves are finished: here you will enter individual battles throughout your realm. It is here, particularly, that Medieval's battle engine shines. On a wide range of terrain---from scorching Arabian desert to rain-swept Scottish highland---your forces clash with those of your foe: is is here the destiny of your Empire will be determined, all in real time.

PROS: "Medieval: Total War" is the kind of game I would have built in a dream. The graphics are superb; the strategic map gorgeous; the units as detailed as they can be without slowing down the game speed. The units are diverse, and each have their own unique strengths and weaknesses: impregnable but slow Byzantine cavlary, Ottoman Sipahis, Turkish Jannisaries, French Knights, devilish Boyars from the steppes of Russia with their nasty (and deadly accurate) bows.

The level of control is amazing---you can micro-manage everything from provincial taxation to the selection of your governors, from setting up trade routes to building a Grand Mosque or championing a Crusade. At the same time, the system itself is admirably simple: you can automate as much, or as little, as you want.

Whether Islamic power, Christian Crusader, or Orthodox hegemon, you also get a soundtrack and voiceovers customized to your power. The soundtrack is gorgeous; and on the strategic map, you're further immersed by background music and noise, whether it's monastic chanting, the sussurus of a zither and sitar, or merely the hushed frenzy of wind blowing across desolate terrain.

CONS: Diplomacy is just a formality. If you're aggressive, chances are---after you've toppled an Empire or two---other powers will gang up against you, or refuse to negotiate with you. The game also has a tendency to crash at the most critical times---even if you save, the act of saving alone might cause a crash.

Finally, the biggest game-flaw in MTW is provincial rebellion: tax your province too high, move your armies away from your imperial core, part your hair the wrong way---and you have a provincial revolt on your hands. It's more annoying than deadly.

But these are small quibbles in a work of art, a game of strategic and tactical brilliance. The "Viking Invasion" expansion moves the action back 300 years, and consists of so many tweaks and features that it's pretty much an evolution of the basic game: you'll be glad---and raise your tankards to Odin in the Drinking Hall---that you have it.

If you have ever dreamed of sending your armies on a rampage across Europe, or throttling an enemy King on his own throne---then "Medieval" is for you. Ready your infantry---triple the Watch---dispatch the assassins---saddle the horses---it's time to get Medieval!

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