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Expansion pack

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It' an expansion pack for medieval 2.As such it's a nice addition.
As for multiplayer, I did not read reviews that stressed any advancements
in that area. Total War has always had a board game feel,with real time
combat.The first two even used Risk style counters and movement.The
new editions are exactly what an expansion is,new units and campaign
elements. A total redesign is not what you would expect. I like the new
editions and have not been deceived into thinking this was supposed to be
revolutionary. Total War is a terrific game,and that is why I purchased the
expansion. If I did not like it the way it was then I'm sure I would not
purchase this edition.

Expansion Exceeded my Expectations

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

CA has done it again with this fantastic expansion pack. It add four campaigns that are just as exciting as the grand campaign in the original M2TW. Of course there are some people out there that are never happy with anything. The biggest complaint that I have heard is comparing the 4 new campaigns to mods. Well, that is precisely what an expansion pack is and always has been in this series.

These campaigns are not short; they are all at least 200 turns each (some are more). They each feature several brand new factions and many, many brand new units. The AI has been improved on both the battle and campaign maps. Seriously, don't listen to the naysayers. If you have liked CA's titles in the past, you will absolutely love this one too.

Go Aztecs!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ok, so if you're even considering buying this then you already know of the greatness that is Total War. Mind you, I am completely biased. I think the Total War series is the best wargame/ strategy series ever created. They constantly improve on their games and surprise me.

The England, Crusade, and Teutonic Crusade Campaigns all rate as 4 to 4.5 stars to me and dont really give us anything too new other than being able to play fun new factions such as the Irish and The pagan Lithuanians.

The real gem for this expansion pack is the Americas Campaign though! It is truly well done (5 stars).

The Armies (in particular, the Aztecs and Mayans) are the most colorful this series has seen. The landscapes range from jungle to desert to mountain passes. The jungle battles contain the best scenary the series has yet presented (though fighting the Chichimecs ("Dog People") in a cactus filled desert is great too!).

I have played all the factions in the new game (multiple times) but continually find myself going back to the Americas Campaign again and again (for a challenge, play as the Tlaxcallans on "hard" settings).

Overall it comes down to this; if you are a diehard fan of the series, you will most likely love this expansion, in particular the Americas and the Teutonic campaigns, if you are a casualy vistor to the Total War series, this game will probably not be worth your time. Stick to your World of Warcraft.

Go Aztecs!!!

Medieval 2: Kingdoms - Best Expansion Ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The "Kingdoms" expansion pack brought back the depth of historical realism of Medieval: Total War 2, as it's historical emphasis seemed to have slightly faded from the original Medieval: Total War. An excellent expansion with four seperate campaigns that take you deep into the history and ambience of their specific region and era. Excellently designed and researched, while losing none of the excitement in play. I highly recommend this expansion to anyone who appreciates any of the total war games.

Good Strategy Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: May 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Its a great game and a good expansion for Medieval II that adds a great many things to the original one.

Awesome Sequel to an Awesome game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Medieval II Total War taken to the next level.... In many ways it is more of the same, but thats not a bad thing in this case.... The only downside is the the Head to Head mode was a rather poor idea and is poorly implemented... but thats ok, it doesn't hurt the game which overall is just plain solid...

Works like a charm of my Mac OS X Leopard Macbook Pro... I run it faster than all my PC friends on my Mac... HA!

Micro-management of Medieval II's bloated grand campaign

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I like Medieval II Total War... but I believe it is heavily flawed, more so than even Rome Total War.

One of the major issues I had with it was that it tries to cram 500 years of history into ONE campaign, whereas Rome Total War only handled less than 300, and Medieval Total War divided the main campaign into three periods - Early, High, and Late, reflecting the major changes in technology and factions (example, the Ayyubid Sultanate of Salah ad-Din is in the Early period, but did not exist towards the later years, so Medieval II crams all the Egyptian factions into one generic "Egypt" faction, and the same goes with the Seljuqs and the Ottomans).

Their response was to make the game pass at a rapid pace, in which each turn would see two years pass, while characters still only aged at a rate of 6 months per turn.

Medieval II Total War Kingdoms cuts up the campaign into tiny pieces focusing on four major events in Medieval/Enlightenment history, those being the wars over Britannia, the Crusades, the Teutonic Knights in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Spanish voyage to the New World, and war with the Aztecs.

So rather than forcing a sluggish campaign, Kingdoms lets us micro-manage major events in Medieval history that in the base game would be tiny events passing by in a matter of hours.

Not only is the campaign improved with larger, more accurate, and more expansive maps, but the turn system is down to a base 1 year per turn, and a flood of new units is available for each campaign. There is twice as much music in the expansion as there was in the base game.

The expansion pack doesn't do much in the way of changing the game, rather giving you more of the base game, with the ability to focus the campaign on historical events more clearly. You can also play as Native American factions that you couldn't do in the base game.

Four games in one!...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 37 / 38
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Okay, first off about the multi-player hotseat thingie..don't really know about it and not my cup of tea so in this review I won't touch on it because quite frankly this is a game I really wouldn't want to play with anyone else. It's a "me" game.

With that being said, this is a nice addition to the Total War franchise. Sure, there are mods you can pick up to tweak it, but nobody makes a mod better than the folks that actually designed the game. In each of the campaigns you have cool triggers that add a dynamic flavour such as Richard and Philip II reinforcing the crusades in the Holy Lands and the Baron's Alliance in the Brittania campaign.

I had some preconceived notions about Kingoms, in that I fully expected some dinky little maps and about 5 hours playtime per campaign. Ohhhhhh no sir, these are full fledged campaigns with lots of territories and tons of time to eat up. They are all quite large, but the Americas campaign map is vast and was extremly fun playing the Apachean tribes. Nothing says "yippie" when your apache dog soldiers are charging and doing that Indian war cry you've heard in every John Wayne movie.

There is no big upgrade over Total War II...ergo, there is no major graphic or engine overhaul, it's simply more campaigns to play - a lot more. One of the nicest things I liked on the new campaigns is that you get a few of the top end units to start so you don't have to wait years to see how that Greek Fire Thrower works or get the uberest Templar Cavalry.

I have had no technical problems on Vista 32-bit with Dual core 2.13ghz, 2gb RAM and NVIDIA 7600 video card.

Not much more to say that hasn't been showcased in previews and you can read from the description up top (which is accurate except the multi-player thingie which I really don't care about) other than if you liked Total War 2 then you are going to really love Kingdoms.

Pros:
- Same good looking graphics as Total War 2
- Sound is amazing with new songs for each of the factions and campaigns
- Tons more units
- Very big campaign maps

Cons:
- Ummm...perhaps the multi-player capability which apparently isn't that great.

Don't Listen to the one or two stars

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: September 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Look, to be perfectly honest someof these people are not being fair with this game. Yes, it's four mods, BUT they're four excellent mods of the best standards. The four new campaigns are HUGE and have excellent replay. The new factions are great(especially the Teutonic Order)and as are the new units. For all of those who are hesitating DON'T. Buy it, I promise you won't regret it

Kingdoms expansion

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: September 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Use must have "Medieval II - Total War" to play the Kingdoms expansion. The Kingdoms expansion uses core game elements from the Medieval II: Total War game, therefore, if you purchased M2-TW from a retail location "in-the-box," then purchase Kingdoms at a retail location "in-the-box;" if you downloaded M2-TW from the internet then download Kingdoms from that same internet provider (e.g., Steam, Direct2Drive, and Digital River, etc.). To play the retail "in-the-box" version of the Kingdom expansion, you will need a DVD drive (the newer the better). The Kingdoms expansion will AUTOMATICALLY upgrade "Medieval II - Total War" up to version 1.3, eliminating the need to obtain and install "Medieval II - Total War" update patches 1.1 and 1.2 before installing the Kingdoms expansion. Be sure that your graphic card and RAM are adequate to the task. Also, be sure to update your graphics card driver, if necessary.

The Kingdoms expansion includes four sub-modules: the Americas Campaign, the Britannia Campaign, the Crusades Campaign, and the Teutonic Order Campaign.

The Americas Campaign contains the following factions (all of which may or may or may not be playable in "campaign mode," but are playable in "custom battle" mode): English Colonies, Chichimec Tribes, Apachean Tribes, the Mayans, New France, New Spain, the Aztec Empire, the Tlaxcalans, and the Tarascans. In the "custom battle" mode, one can select either "high" or "late" period (not "early"); and one can select one of seventeen (17) battle maps.

The Britannia Campaign contains the following factions (all of which may or may or may not be playable in "campaign mode," but are playable in "custom battle" mode): England, the Baron's Alliance, Ireland, Norway, Scotland, and Wales. In the "custom battle" mode, one can select either "early," "high," or "late" period; and one can select one of twenty (20) battle maps.

The Crusades Campaign contains the following factions (all of which may or may or may not be playable in "campaign mode," but are playable in "custom battle" mode): the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, Egypt, the Mongols, the Turks, and Venice. In the "custom battle" mode, one can select either "early," "high," or "late" period; and one can select one of nineteen (19) battle maps.

The Teutonic Order Campaign contains the following factions (all of which may or may or may not be playable in "campaign mode," but are playable in "custom battle" mode): Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire, Lithuania, the Mongols, Norway, Novgorod, Poland, and the Teutonic Order. In the "custom battle" mode, one can select either "early," "high," or "late" period; and one can select one of eighteen (18) battle maps.

Of interest to modders, the Kingdoms expansion includes SDK tools, including a "Battle Editor" for the creation of custom battle maps, and an "Unpacker" tool which allows one to open data packs, and then edit and/or replace some of the individual files. Also included is "CinEd," allowing one to create movies using battle replays.

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