Browse Stainless Steel mod for Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms files to download full releases, installer, sdk, patches, mods, demos, and media. Brilliant, bloody, deep, and engaging, Medieval II: Total War simply has no equal among strategy games in terms of sheer variety of play. Sporting a real-time strategy combat engine hidden inside a sedate, turn-based strategy shell, M2:TW does both genres well enough to be good games in their own right, making the combination of the two all-but-irresistible. Medieval 2 Total War Kingdoms download free. full Game is the expansion to the 2006 PC game Medieval II: Total War. It was developed by The Creative Assembly. The expansion was released on 28 August 2007 in North America and has four new campaigns: the first wave of European colonization of the Americas, the series of wars (including the Welsh. Medieval II: Total War is the fourth release in the Total War series which places you between the years of 1080 and 1530 to battle and conquer lands in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Set in medieval times, the game provides turn-based strategy with real-time battles using accurately. But the brilliance of Shogun, now some 30 months old, has lived on, touching enough people's hearts and wallets to warrant a sequel, Medieval: Total War. So bow down and pay homage. The King has returned. The Saga Continues. Chapter two of the Total War saga sails west, away from feudal Japan to the powder keg of Medieval Europe.
Bastard ncsoft drummer boys!I'm sitting here at the world's largest games convention about to see one of the highlights of E3 2006, and all I can hear is the incessant poundings of a bunch of music student hippies hired by NCsoft to piss off anyone within a 30-mile radius of their stand.Still, it could be worse. The Creative Assembly's Ian Roxburgh and Mark Sutherns have been sitting next to these beat boys for the past two days, so much so that they've perfected the art of presenting Medieval 2 at a volume rivalling a pneumatic drill.
It's been just five months since we broke the news that the Total War family was soon to have a fourth arrival, but with Roxburgh and Sutherns in the mood to extol the virtues of their game, it's immediately apparent that they're keen to spill enough Medieval 2 beans to cover almost three pieces of toast.
'Everything is bigger and better than Rome' yells Roxburgh as he begins his presentation. 'The battles have double the polygons, each troop is unique and there are numerous combat variations with thrusts, parries and fatality moves. We've also doubled the textures on the campaign map, and there are twice as many voiceovers and sound effects. We've even ensured that each nation has the correct accent.'
Shout It Out
Roxburgh zooms into the campaign map, which radiates a refined clarity and depth of detail when compared to Rome's worldview. But the strategic map's enhancements run far deeper than cosmetics. 'We're adding loads of new features,' he bellows. 'Click on any faction on the map and it'll give you a voiceover that reflects how it feels towards you. If a nation is amenable to you, they'll greet you, while a hostile nation will be far more aggressive. You'll no longer have to use the Diplomacy screen to find out how a nation feels.' While Total War has been at the forefront of strategic innovation for the best part of six years now, one area that's lacked depth has been diplomacy, a failing that the team are keen to rectify. 'We've spent a lot of time improving diplomacy,' screams Roxburgh, as blood begins to seep from my eardrums.
'In Medieval2, the Al will not only remember previous dealings you've had with it but your dealings with other factions, too. It'll then base its stance towards you on all of those factors.'Another new addition to the strategic map are princesses - pawns that can be used in a variety of underhand ways. Little more than whores in expensive garbs, these harlot diplomats can be prostituted to make alliances with rival factions (through arranged marriages), or sent to seduce enemy generals to your cause.
While we're on the subject of generals.. 'Each general's personality will have different effects on the battlefield or within cities,' roars Roxburgh. 'A general's attributes can also change, depending on how they conduct themselves on the battlefield.' Mercilessly slaughter the prisoners you capture during a battle (a feature reprised from the original Medieval} and your general's 'dread' rating will rocket, making enemies fearful on the battlefield and civilians more obedient within cities. And while showing mercy m war may make your generals a target for big girly girl' remarks from opposing armies, at least the people will love them should you order them to liabysit a settlement. Unless of course they raid the fridge, invite over their girlfriend and leave sticky stains on the sofa, in which case, they could be faced with a revolution.
Hostile Intent
Also adding to the campaign map's strategic depth are merchants, a group of money-grabbing capitalists whose sole purpose in life is to amass money and resources through any means necessary.'If you want to delve a little deeper into the economy, you'll be able to move merchants to pockets of resources dotted around the map,' howls Roxburgh. If allied factions have merchants guarding a resource, you can attempt a hostile takeover and force them off. It's like an economic rivalry that's totally separate to being at war with a faction'
Next up are heretics and witches, heathen wanderers who spread religious doubt throughout your provinces (causing social unrest) and convert impressionable priests to their way of thinking.'Heretics and witches will appear at various times and permeate through your land spreading heresy,' Roxburgh continues, during a rare respite from the NC soft stand. 'You can send in priests to convert them, but if they fail, they'll be turned into heretics too.' And yes, you can burn them.
Kick Up The Arse
Avid Total War fans will be happy to know that the assassination animations - brief cut-scenes, which chart the success or failure of a professional hit -are Ixick after their disappearance in Medieval and Rome. 'We have loads of these, so it's unlikely you'll ever see the same one twice,' screeches Roxburgh as the cacophony restarts. 'There are different movies for all of the different targets you can kill, for successes, failures and even ones for when the target manages to escape,' adds Mark Sutherns. Unlike Shogun's basic and repetitive animations, these murderous moments prove of the highest quality, perfectly raising that tension before reaching their unpredictable conclusions.
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Another criticism of Rome was the relative comfort you'd enjoy once you'd built up a sizeable empire. With your capital city surrounded by vassal states, your kingdom's epi-centre would rarely feel threatened. Not this time, though.
'We're making the campaign map Al far more proactive than before. You'll find that your homeland will be attacked a lot more. Your enemies may stick a large army on a fleet and come and attack you at your main city. That's why all of the city fortifications you've built up for your main cities will become far more important this time around,' hollers Roxburgh.
What's more, once your medieval empire becomes overwhelmingly powerful, you'll quickly find your rivals rallying together to oppose your expanding kingdom, a feature which the team hopes will make the game challenging from beginning to end. So, with the strategic map clearly enjoying a sizeable makeover, we move on to the part I've really been waiting for the most, the real-time battles..
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To War!
During the course of the next 20 minutes, I sit through three battles, each one more brutal and cinematicthan the last.
First off is the age-old grudge match between the English and the French, set in lush surroundings flanked on both sides by dense forests. With Roxburgh's English forces dug in along a ridge, the French infantry launch an audacious bid to turn themselves into gallic kebabs as they march straight onto a row of spikes placed down by his archers (an all-new feature), while they send their cavalry through the trees to launch a surprise attack. Misjudged in the extreme, Roxburgh quickly dispatches an attempted foot soldier diversion, leaving the French mounted knights isolated and vulnerable.
What strikes me most though isn't the French tactical naivety, but the breathtaking level of detail that these battles contain. Gone are the clone armies of Rome, replaced by rows of unique soldiers, their armour acquiring blood and mud as they duel with their opponents, before visibly scanning their surroundings for their next victim.
Dead bodies now stack up in horrific mounds - rather than the flat 2D corpses of Rome - while the battle physics have clearly enjoyed a makeover, with clashes looking more brutal and jarring than ever before. Individual blades of grass sway in the breeze, shrubs look prunable, weather changes dynamically and night-time battles are looking more visually impressive than ever, while every armour and weapon upgrade you make in the strategic map is now visually represented on the real-time battlefield.
Wall Fall
Battle number two is a desert skirmish. English crusaders battle the Egyptians, pounding the massed enemy ranks with mighty cannons. Finally, Roxburgh takes on an Aztec tribe. After obliterating their city walls with siege weapons (walls now crumble brick by brick, rather than in massive sections), the Iiainted South Americans spill out of the gates in their thousands, only to be to slaughtered by superior tactics and swords that aren't made from wood.
There'll be loads of new features in these battles that you'll have to take into account, like impassable terrain. The Al will look at that and think of how it can use it to its advantage,' bellows Sutherns. 'We've done hundreds of hours on the animation work, so that the battles feel far more realistic and fluid.'
For now, that's all there is, but I've seen and heard more than enough to reinforce my belief that this next Total V/cir instalment could well pick up the baton from Rome and raise the RTS bar to even greater heights. As Sutherns and Roxburgh bid me a hoarse farewell, I leave their booth energised, ears ringing and bloodied, and ready to kill myself some drummer boys.
Papal politics
The pope and the crusades will play a far more prominent role than they did in the original Medieval. For starters, you'll have to manage your relationship with the pope much more carefully, ensuring you build plenty of churches and cathedrals, while making sure you stamp out any heretics or witches before they have a chance to infect your populace with their heathen views.However, if you fancy installing one of your own priests into the Vatican, you'll first need to get them elected to the College of Cardinals, then either win votes through virtuous deeds or by bribing other nations with fat wads of non-sequential bills stuffed into brown envelopes.q
Once you build up enough influence with the pope, you'll then be able to persuade him to call crusades that are beneficial to your nation, at which point a bunch of inbred rich boys will march to their deaths to extend your holdings under the pretence of religious duty. To help speed them to their graves will be a double movement bonus as well as a battlefield cross that acts as a morale-boosting emblem. For the king, for god, for increased economical stability.. To war!
The American dream
Towards the latter stages of the game, an historical event will insinuate that there could be land across the sea. That place is, of course, the Americas. Teeming with resources, you and every other nation will suddenly become locked in a race to get over there, cleanse the lands of any indigenous people (aka The Aztecs) and liberate all of the natural resources from these brutal, heathen, heretical barbarians who dare inhabit an area of such economic wealth.
But bolstering your coffers with the blood of innocent American tribes won't be easy. While their technology and weapons may be primitive (seems the nearest these boys ever came to armour was body paint), you'll soon discover that not only are they incredibly brave warriors, but that there's 'fahsands of 'em', too. However, if you manage to pull it off and conquer the lands for yourself, you'll find yourself top of the Medieval Rich List in no time.
Despite its all-round unrivalled excellence, there is one aspect of Creative Assembly’s BAFTA award-winning Shogun: Total War that perhaps held it back in terms of multimillion sales: the fact that it was set in medieval Japan rather than medieval Europe. Not that we’re complaining but, understandably for most, it’s far easier to relate to a knight in shining armour than it is a samurai in hakama or kataginu - leaving aside the problem of pronunciation. Similarly, how many of you can have claimed to have seen Rashomon or Seven Samurai? How about Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves? Exactly.
No matter how many billions more will buy the recently renamed Medieval: Total War on the basis of its setting, the signs look good that gameplay-wise the game will build upon its predecessor’s solid foundations. For those who missed it, Shogun was, of course, a delicate blend of Warhammer’s epic table-top battles, mixed with a healthy dose of Civilization-style turn-based complexity. A potent mix for sure, and one that worked perfectly. It’s no small complement when we say that Shogun was the most important strategy game since Dune 2 and, if we dare carry the analogy further, Medieval could be to Shogun what C&C was to West wood’s ground-breaking first RTS.
'We’ve kept the basic premise of Shogun: Total War but completely redesigned the gameplay to make it suitable for the period,' says Michael de Plater, creative director of The Creative Assembly, on die differences between both games. 'The 3D battlefields are now as varied as they are spectacular to look at - with everything ranging from deserts to lush European landscapes. Sieges have now become an important part of the game and the 12 playable factions each have their own unique units, tech trees and strengths/weaknesses, with more than 100 different unit types in 1 total, from Knights Templar and Bedouin Camel Warriors to Brigands,! Archers and Peasants.'
What Is This Castle Called That Stands Hard By?
One of Shogun's few weaknesses and conversely Medieval's greatest single innovation, is the game’s castle battles. As well as towering stone keeps and forbidding ramparts, the whole lot will be fully destructible, with players able to field mangonels, siege cannons, trebuchets and ballista.
'Siege warfare was a very important part of Medieval warfare, and we’ve dedicated a lot of time to making castle sieges an incredible experience,' offers de Plater. 'Players will also be able to custom-design their castles by adding defensive features, such as catapult towers, palisades, and outer walls. In the earlier periods, the battlefield is dominated by knights and heavy cavalry. Longbows then make their mark and, towards the end of the game, gunpowder and heavy artillery will heavily affect the gameplay - and ’ the castles.'
Culture Clubbing
Shogun campaign veterans will I remember how important it was to keep generals and heroes alive, and in Medieval we can expect a similar 'honour' system, with monarchs, their heirs, dukes and lords now boasting RPG-style character development, which, as de Plater says, 'accrue various vices and virtues that reflect their actions'. It seems a local lord crazed with bloodlust, as well as ruthless in combat, may well spark off a rebellion.
But it is the familiar as much as the I new that will ensure Medieval takes over from Shogun as the wargame of choice for PC strategists and, while the 3D real-time battles - again featuring countless thousands of troops across far more varied terrain - will be just as' epic in scope, the turn-based element of resource management, diplomacy, I research and espionage seem to have been significantly ramped up to mirror the game’s far more varied spread of warring cultures.
'Part of the popularity of Shogun: Total War was the fact that it combined turn-based and real-time strategy,' explains de Plater. 'The 3D battles have much more meaning to the player if they’ve been involved in creating those battle conditions through their own strategic decisions. All manner of non-combat units will feature, as princesses, bishops, heretics, i-finders, famous artists, and ralphilosophers (scientists).
These characters can trigger religious wars, negotiate treaties, create famous works of art or make incredible scientific discoveries,' he adds.have much more meaning to the player if they’ve been involved in creating those battle conditions through their own strategic decisions. All manner of non-combat units will feature, as princesses, bishops, heretics, i-finders, famous artists, and ralphilosophers (scientists).
These characters can trigger religious wars, negotiate treaties, create famous works of art or make incredible scientific discoveries,' he adds.
Blender 2.79. 'There are also new strategic changes such as the ability for armies to be transported across the sea via ships. One of my favourite new features is that each territory on the strategy map is now geographically accurate - and the border over which you attack that region will determine the nature of the battlefield that you fight on. So, if you attack a region from the north, the terrain may be mainly mountainous (and hard to capture) but attacking the same region from the south could result in a flat lowland map. This adds another level of strategy to the turn-based game.'
Though a full online campaign option has been ruled out for the sequel (as it eventually was for Shogun), it does little to diminish fervour for the game among PC Shogun fans. Today, Shogun still remains the benchmark for wargamers and there seems little to challenge it, at least until Medieval comes along. Having not yet had the chance to play the game first-hand we could be going slightly overboard, but from what we’ve seen we can safely say that Medieval will be the strategy game of 2002. All that remains is to try and predict what Total War scenario we can expect in 2004. Unfortunately, it’s out of our hands, though we don’t mind - it’s bound to be another unrivalled epic.