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Download the 6.4 version of SS here [www.twcenter.net] II. Install SS 6.3. The installer should find your Steam version/folder of M2:TW. The following game setup is irrelevant at this point. Install SS 6.4. Again the installer should find your M2:TW Steam-folder and SS.6.3 sub dir. Now read the explanations for the campaign setup and chose wisely.
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So this weekend I decided to install the on LemurLord’s. I played for about 12 hours in total and thought I’d let you guys know my impressions so far. The only mod I’ve played for M2:TW other than this one is DarthMod, so you may find me comparing the two here. First off let’s talk installation. Before you get started this mod requires the Kingdoms expansion.
The installer is excellent and pretty easy to follow. You need to first and then install the.
The installation is quite easy if you aren’t like me and realize ahead of time that you have to install 6.3 first. At the end of install you’ll be asked a few questions about features you want to install. For reference I chose Late Era, didn’t activate any of the “hyper-realism” features, and chose the balanced AI.
If you prefer a more aggressive/war hungry AI you can do that, there is also an option for a pacifist AI. I’ve always found that the AI in vanilla breaks alliances too easily, but I also didn’t want to have to be the “bad guy” and always the aggressor so thought the inbetween option would be best. When I first booted up the mod I was impressed with the splash screens and upon selecting the Grand Campaign nicely surprised by the expanded campaign map and factions. The Kingdom of Jerusalem and Knights Templar have been merged into a faction called the Crusader States and the map now expands much further to the east, well into present day Iran just past the eastern edge of the Caspian Sea, and all the way to the eastern edge of the Persian Gulf further south. The available empires have been renamed and split to their more historic/realistic counterparts – Spain is now split to the Kingdom of Castille and the Kingdom of Aragon.
Norway and Denmark vie for control of northern Europe with the Kingdom of Novgorod and Kiev etc. The start date for the late campaign was 1200 with a 400 turn limit. I decided to take it a bit easy and choose the new Norman Kingdom of Sicily and I was off to the races – required to capture Byzantium and Jerusalem and destroy the Aragonians and Byzantines.
(caveat: I haven’t read the patch/mod notes in depth) Once I got into the game I found that (despite turns still taking forever to complete, even with a blazing fast new rig) the game went much faster than I was used to which was a good thing. I should note that lately I’ve found that I get annoyed by the AI’s glitchiness in the RTS battles so I’ve started auto-resolving a lot more and just dealing with the additional loses it can incur. The music and sound is much improved and the map certainly looks better. Cities like Venice and Byzantium have individual distinct looks to them and your units tend to have more interesting things to “say”. The customized faction-specific units look great and give a good feel to recruitment, yet they aren’t too cluttered like I found they could be if you’ve used DarthMod. With the AI I selected my alliances actually stayed in tact for extremely long periods of time and required a lot of finagling to provoke your allies into breaking them, which to me was very welcome. This doesn’t mean that you won’t erode your alliances by doing things against their interests, but rather that they stick around long enough for you to patch things up which seemed more realistic to me than the usual fickle AI tendencies of vanilla or Darth.
Units such as merchants, spies, princesses, assassins and priests tend to gain abilities quicker which is something common in most of the mods out there – these units were just too weak versus AI units in vanilla imo. The other nice touch I noticed were the updated historical announcements at the end of turns – having the extra texture and contexts of things that happened historically as you are playing is always great. Despite my attempts to avoid them, some of the RTS battles are just too important to ignore.
Not a chance I was going to let the treacherous Portuguese take Corsica without a serious fight. I had read complaints prior to installing that the unit movement was unrealistically fast, and I’d have to agree. The thing is – I thought it was great! I normally go for realism mods and I’m wondering now if I’ve been heading in the wrong direction all this time.
The improved movement speed made the battles much more exciting and it was refreshing to finish a giant battle in less than 45 minutes. Having units actually get into position quickly was nice and having the ability to get units on and off walls was a pinch. This isn’t to say that the combat AI was that much better. I continued to have problems with pathing on and off walls and proper defensive positions. As in all the Total War games though I’ve just come to terms with the fact that there are problems with the AI and I roll with it. Units looked great, textures were improved, I had a helluva time!
To end my long winded mini-review - capturing Byzantium was fantastically rewarding and I’m about to move on the Fatimid Caliphate and reclaim the Holy Land in name of the Pope. My hold on the former Moorish territories is tenuous with the Portuguese and Aragonians pressuring my western flank and I can’t wait to get home and try and finish it up! TLDNR: Stainless Steel for M2:TW is fantasic.
A huge improvement over vanilla and DarthMod. It brought me back to a classic game and made it 10x as much fun.
It’s even made me think I can avoid pre-ordering Shogun now because there is clearly a lot of life left in this game edit: is there any way to add indents and more than a double-space between paragraphs? Sheesh, wall of text. You just have to make sure to target the steam directory where medieval2 is installed.
It will when add a 'stainless steel' option to the pulldown in the Total War launcher when you run it. Also don't make the mistake i did and just install 6.4. You have to install 6.3 first, and then patch up to 6.4 Quite easy to do, I'm just impatient and often speed read instructions:) edit: also you have to run Kingdoms at least once before you run the stainless steel mod or it won't start properly. I assume that is because it needs to create the config/save file directories etc.
So install M2:TW - Install Kingdoms - Run M2:TW - Exit - Run Kingdoms - Exit - Install SS 6.3 - Install SS 6.4 Patch - Run SS. You'll be good to go from that point forward. Do you know if this version of the mod has hotseat? The hotseat in Kingdoms is in some mods for Medieval:2, but there are some flaws with it. When you play along, the game pauses the turn cycle when an enemy attacks you and lets you fight the battle.
However, the Kingdoms hotseat doesn't, and simply auto-resolves all battle not during a turn. There was a mod for Medieval: 2 that applied a hotseat mode that allowed whomever was attacked to actually fight the battles.
Do you know of any mods that work like that?
Features New Unit Rosters for Novgorod and Kievan Rus Using the brilliant work of the Rusichi: Total War team, BftB2 features all new revised unit rosters for the two Rus factions. This means that the two rosters are more similar to each other but more unique in the context of the whole game. Because of Novgorod’s proximity to the west, its roster is geared towards heavy infantry and cavalry. Kievan Rus, being closer and more influenced by the peoples of the steppe, will tend towards infantry and mounted archers. New late era armour upgrades for Ritterbruder: New Unit: Reysen Knights These are knights who have responded to the call to crusade against the pagans of the Baltic.
With crusading in the Holy Land getting more and more difficult, it became more and more popular for knights and nobles to fulfill their crusading vows by fighting the enemies of christendom that were closer to home. While not members of the Teutonic Order, they would accompany the Order on it's reysen (raids) into Lithuania. The Order would sometimes even organise reysen especially for notable guests. New Unit: Strutere Also known as latrunculi, these prussians were allowed to terrorize the lands of the Order's enemies.
They murdered their foes in bath-houses, in bed or at feasts. Because they knew all the secret paths through the dense Baltic forests, they often acted as guides for the Order's reysen (raids) into Lithuanian territory. The fear these marauders cause is almost palpable.
Novgorod Republic Government Traits Historically, Novgorod was ruled by the Veche council. The Veche was an oligarchic body made up of the landed boyar nobles and the wealthy Novgorodian merchants. Often, the ruling Kynaz of Novgorod would be ejected from his position by the Veche and a new Kynaz would be invited to take his place. This is now implemented in Battle for the Baltic. Novgorod no longer has a family tree as it only rarely that a son would follow his father as Kynaz. Each general now has a 'Veche Approval' trait that shows what the Veche thinks of him.
If he performs well and does things the Veche like, his approval will improve. This gives him a greater chance of becoming the next Kynaz. Conversely, if the Veche do not approve of his actions, then there is every likelyhood that he will never be more than a general.
The Veche are mostly concerned with security of the Republic and trade. So winning battles, building trade buildings and lowering taxes will win the Veche's approval. Losing battles and setting high taxes will lose approval for that general. New Feature: Italian Republics Nothing to do with the Baltic, but the republic government trait system used for Novgorod has been extended to include the other two historical republics in the game: Venice and Genoa.
These two factions no longer have family trees and use authority to determine the next heir just like Novgorod. Updated Russian terrain and settlements in the main Stainless Steel campaigns The Russian regions on the main SS campaign map have been updated to include more important cities (i.e. Vladimir, Rostov).
The famous rivers of Russia are also more prominent now. There is also a new settlement south of Kiev, which no longer controls the land all the way to the Black Sea. 2 turns per year timescale. Limited settlement development. Not all settlements on the map can grow to full size. Some will only ever be villages, others only towns. This has been done to limit the number of sieges and also so that the Baltic doesn’t become one huge sprawling metropolis.
Town square building. Every settlement on the map has a town square building. To the player it provides no bonuses but it gives the AI boosts to public order and religious conversion.
This is so the AI’s settlements don’t rebel every 5 seconds and limits the flood of heretics/witches. Historical figures will come to help the Teutonic Order.
Henry Bolingbroke, Jean Boucicaut and John of Bohemia will all lend their swords to the Order’s cause. If they succeed in their missions, they will leave a sizeable donation to the Order. If their mission is a failure, their donation will be smaller or possibly even nothing.
Lithuania will get counter missions to kill the crusading nobles. Novgorod now has to deal with Mongol tax collectors.
Take the battle to the seas! AI factions now spawn fleets. Improved Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League is now a proper guild with three distinct levels like all guilds. However unlike other guilds, the League buildings only become available after 1253 (the historical founding of the League).