Medieval II Total War Online Battle 2 France vs Byzantines

[@niibor1]

one of my favourite things about this game was how when you upgraded the armour of a unit, the actual unit in game change it's armour! also heir, the charges in this game can be pretty finickity, you need to make sure your cavalry have a decent distance to charge and that they are in a decent formation or they just charge in with swords rather than using their lances.

[@Stand_By_For_Mind_Control]

Things I miss: Unlocking factions by defeating them or by editing text files. Things I don't miss: The assumption that every computer screen is 800x600.

[@johnroscoe2406]

Well it's an old game soooo.... even when you posted this 3 years ago...

[@comrad9372]

You should do a campaign for Medieval 2!

[@leapingfrog2]

Scotland campaign!

[@itsmattymattymatty]

Britannia expansion!

[@Whatsuppbuddies]

Nick Thompson you want shitty pikes? here you want slightly more armoured shitty pikes? here

[@alverygrissom2544]

england campaign!

[@dalakhsarothal9624]

Nicholas Kendell Scotland is super easy campaign due to your start position. You can jsut face roll everything and leave your lands deserted of any army.

[@Snarfindorf]

Look at how the infantry actually acts like they're in a real fight; spread out and moving around to good positions. Fuck Rome 2

[@cato1213]

Lancers are better than Chivalric Knights, even though the unit card says they have lower armor. The extra point of armor for the Chivalric Knights comes from their shield, which only comes into effect if they're attacked from the front.

[@julianaquarium]

Lancers have no shields, and that makes them bad in mêlee and bad against missiles

[@BrorealeK]

julianaquarium they do fine in melee and their armor is so ridic they barely take damage from missiles.

[@D0CH0liday]

Broreale this is incorrect. lancers lose in melee agianst lesser and cheaper units at a 100% rate

[@itsmattymattymatty]

So gutted they're not making a medieval 3

[@julianaquarium]

They would probably make it just as bad as Attila -_-

[@stevieCOH2142]

julianaquarium have you played attila?

[@jugeoben]

itsmattymattymatty Source, please?

[@thegrosspeach]

jugeoben CA said they aren't making a third anything IE Shogun 3 Rome 3 Medieval 3

[@simranjeet36]

Stevie Cowfeet Clearly he hasn't, probably just bitching about DLC

[@AleksiMizaro]

You can put multiple pike units on top of each other, seems to rout the enemy quicker and not let any infantry through the pikes wall. Also, if the enemy gets through/ around then your pikemen they will put their pikes down and take out swords - just untoggle/ toggle again the pike wall button and they'll put their pikes down again.

[@Kuhlfurst]

Byzantines were badass. 1071 never forget.

[@sumeone123]

1204 never forget. Sweet Byzantium never recovered fully.

[@Kuhlfurst]

sumeone123 That is very true but 1204 wouldn't have happened without Manzikert. It was the root of all the Empire's later misfortunes, a fact that was even recognized by the Byzantines themselves. Until the very end it was "that day" which marked the beginning of the end for the Rhomaioi.

[@sumeone123]

***** Manzikert only makes sense in that way if you look at it in a deterministic lens of constant decline. Manzikert was undoubtedly a massive setback for the Byzantines. Empire, but most modern historians view the extent of that setback to be overexaggerated. Not more than one decade afterwards the Komnenoi dynasty took control over the empire, and led the empire through restoration and reform. By the reign of Manuel Komnenos, the Byzantines were projecting their power all around the Mediterranean, and campaigning widely in Europe and Asia. The point is, the empire survived the supposedly catastrophic Manzikert with some difficulty, and thrived for a time afterwards, but when Konstantinopolis fell to the Fourth Crusade, that was truly a unrecoverable disaster(yet the Empire did, albeit temporarily).

[@Kuhlfurst]

sumeone123 I know how things went, and I am aware of modern scholarly consensus. However, keep in mind that Manzikert was the reason why the Crusades began in the first place. Alexios Komnenos requested help to take back Anatolia, which wouldn't have been necessary if Anatolia had never been lost. Thus, no Fourth Crusade. Even if the Empire did recover under the Komnenoi as it did, Manzikert did plant the seeds for long-term failure. And even the Komnenoi were unable to take Anatolia entirely, notably failing in Myriokephalon. Once the Turks were in there was no throwing them out. I am absolutely not questioning the impact of the Fourth Crusade as the "last nail in the coffin", but I am noting that Manzikert started the process that made it possible.

[@horrendumpiscarro]

***** The Crusades were nothing more than a pillagefest, another distraction for the common folk from their real problems.

[@Mitachia]

I forgot how great are the battles in the older games.

[@KingMakerRook]

Good fight Heir. As a general rule for two-handed weapons, they're better on the charge than any other infantry but they also die faster than your average infantry when they're bogged down. Their melee animation is too slow to keep up with sword-and-board in vanilla. Elite two-handers like the Varangian guard or dismounted gothic knights have better staying power than your average two-hander unit, but they're typically easier to kill in the slog than their equivalent cost sword-and-board or spear unit. Think of them as a pseudo-cavalry. If you get a good front charge you can back up and get your heavier infantry in for the slugfest with a massive advantage because a two-hander charger will always do huge damage. Or you can have your two-handers hit the sides of a formation for some heavy damage.

[@Joker-yw9hl]

My favourite army builds for medieval are usually PLENTY of heavy cav, about 6-8 units of elite infantry or dismounted feudal nights and plenty of longbowmen/archers. Longbowmen can deploy stakes to ward off cav. Hungary and England were my favourite factions

[@demomanchaos]

Varangian Guard are among the best troops in the game (after the tweaks in the Kingdom's expansions), and in history. High armor, vicious armor piercing attack, and a very good charge to boot. They were Scandanavian mercs serving as the emperor's guard.

[@Rellana1]

And later Saxons as well,that were disillusioned with the King of England at that time.

[@CaptainLanky26]

I forgot how beautiful this game was for its time

[@D0CH0liday]

Heir, i love that youre showing M2TW........this is my fav TW game by far, and its great to this, thanks!

[@Tanuvein]

It's so weird watching a video where you aren't able to go into detailed analysis of each unit as you absolutely crush the enemy. Very exciting battle though, and I am impressed at how well the unit graphics have held up. The interface, on the other hand...

[@northmetalguy]

Man, Medieval 2 is just awesome. The graphics hold up really well. Clunky movement and pathing aside, I feel like the combat between individual units is more dynamic than Attila. They actually try hitting eachother. Instead of shuffling around, hoping to get a kill animation of.

[@MrCuttup]

Using thin lines of sturdy infantrymen to absorb charges and countercharging with shock infantry through the back of your own men can be devastating at times in medieval 2

[@Anus_disfunction]

How come a 10 years old game looks not worse than Attila?

[@gladiator5426]

It does look worse, unless you're playing Attila on the lowest settings maybe.

[@Anus_disfunction]

DetailedEyes Yes, it does look worse a little bit. Attila has more graphical effects, but in general there is no real gap between these games despite the fact Medieval II is 10 years older.

[@The_Iowegian]

In terms of balance yes, graphics no!

[@BanditoPlays]

Nice battle. I want Medieval 3 so bad...

[@CaptainInvisible1]

On the subject of Pikes, I think Edwin Starr says it better that I can "What is it good for, absolutely nothing!" :P. Honestly they are ok from the front if supported. But, yet again, they are another bugged unit that thinks the short swords they are given are better than the long pikes.

[@erethon9467]

Pikes are very effective but they are also really difficult to master. Flemish pikes in particular are good but some factions like the scots and the spanish have better pikemen. (Tercio pikemen for spain) Their only real disadvantage is that they are vulnerable to missiles and that they can not be used for offensive actions. But if you want a unit to hold the line, pikemen are the best unit to do so

[@AryanWarriorBogpill]

Gendarme and Lancer cav have a much stronger charge since their mass is calculated with a larger multiplier, this just increases the chances their lance attack (full charge) gets a critical hit. They have lower defense but better armor. They serve the purpose of shock cavalry whereas shielded cav are lighter but do better in prolonged melee.

[@TeamRainbow]

Medieval II will always be my favourite game of all time. The atmosphere and balance was superior to Rome and the Music was fantastic, giving excellent immersion! Lets not even get into the mods!

[@maidenti]

Byzantines my favorite fanction in Medieval II, nice battle btw!

[@Knoloaify]

Cavalry is tricky to use in M2. In order to get the best charge you need them to use their lances, wich they won't unless they are in formation, unengaged and charging in a straight line (a sharp turn can mess up the charge), rather than charging from one unit to another it's better to disengage them, let them reorganize and then charge. That way you can get a lot of kills, especially against infantry. And like someone else pointed out, the money you had to pay for going over 4 of the same unit could have been used for weapon / armor /veterancy upgrades.

[@CoDWikiTMOI]

Aw yeah, more classic total war action!

[@fernando101090]

I love Medieval II. To bad the ui and campaing map are soo outdated

[@RamRam.720]

The varangian charge is fantastic, in prolonged melee they die like cattle. Also guard archers are more than capable in melee.

[@revolutionalist]

As you notice soundtrack is amazing like mtw1. Since empire the atmosphere went south

[@1bobbyflower]

I wouldn't recommend Pikes in most cases, however you can utilise the really cheap Pikes of e.g. the HRE really well if you stack them. Put a higher armor melee unit immeiatly in front of the Pikes, spread them out thinly enough for the pikes to reach all the way through the unit in front of them. Like that you can extremely enhance the holding power of your infantry while at the same time spending much less on infantry than your opponent probably did, meaning that you can go crazy on extremely good cavalry.

[@scottieboomboom1]

the scottish noble pikemen are epic

[@niibor1]

most of the scot units are pretty badass

[@Freelocybin]

FYI: The Byzantinian Empire understood itself as roman, the term "byzantinian" was coined during the 19th century. shortly after the slow demise of eastern rome under constant attacks of nomadic tribes, sassanids and arabs, Charlemagne ("Karl der Große" in german) was crowned emperor of the holy roman empire (german: "Heiliges römisches Reich Deutscher Nation"), on december 25th 800 A.D., which only ended in course of the napoleonic wars, more than 1000 years later at around 1806. Even as late as into the 19th century, some people in formerly eastern roman empire still understood themselves as "romuli" (romans). So, if you think about it, Rome formally existed from 753 B.C until 1806, which is more than 2500 years in total. Greetings from a student of prehistoric archaeology from Frankfurt, Germany! =)

[@electronewage9787]

Freelocybin The difference being that Constantine Palaiologos was a legitimate successor to Augustus while the HRE was something entirely different with no connection to the old Roman Empire.The Greeks still use,albeit rarely, their old ethnonym,"Romios".Turks also call the few remaining Greeks of Constantinople as "Rum".

[@Freelocybin]

yeah, I know it's not entirely the same thing, but I believe there was something about a prophecy by some guy named daniel which basically says when the roman empire falls that would usher in the apocalypse, so they did that as kind of a political-religious stunt. after all, I'm a prehistorian and thats not my field of expertise at all so I might well be wrong, but that's how I remember it.

[@Freelocybin]

I think it also depends on the level of detail with which you want to approach it. One might well argue that the roman kingdom, republic and empire were three different entities, since there have been numerous shifts of power inbetween those. On the other hand, you could call that silly and perhaps a little pedantic =)

[@JAG-pt8kh]

You should've held infantry back like he did. Those front units were probably there to give his Latinkon a clean entry without being charged.

[@oso2400]

Please play some Divide et Impera with Rome II. The units are so well balanced, I think that you will love it. I've commented this before but I don't think you saw it so I'm just going to comment it until you play it or I get a reply!

[@TheEvilAdventurer]

I hated that mod

[@oso2400]

TheEvilAdventurer Why?

[@TheEvilAdventurer]

Daemon Blackfyre Because the core game was still awful, it unbalanced the game even more and got loads of fan fare when there are so many better mods for Rome II

[@oso2400]

TheEvilAdventurer What version was that? Doesn't sound anything like DeI to me.

[@CMXfan]

Two-handed weapon shock infantry seems to do really poorly in Medieval 2 vanilla. They do better in Kingdoms, which shuffled unit stats, but testing in vanilla custom battle a dismounted feudal knight not only won against Varangian guard, but also broke even on the charge. They do well as a flanking force, spear or pike killers, or as a finishing moral blow.

[@heathenwizard]

Byzantines don't really have a "specialization" other than exceptional horse archers, but their infantry, missile troops, and cavalry are still very good. Their Varangians will usually swing an infantry engagement in their favor, especially if they engage already engaged troops. The Byzantines are a remarkably flexible faction, and pull off that flexibility well in my opinion. You might have been better off with more cavalry, as that is where France's specialty lies, but you limited yourself to 5 so that kinda shot you in the foot. 8 or 9 cav from France was what I usually fielded, along with Pavise Crossbows to snipe generals and heavy infantry units.

[@DEEsoulman]

crossbows are pretty good if you can focus their fire on one armoured unit and time their attacks.

[@praetoriancorps]

I love this game. Tough it is not on par with games like shogun, rome 2 or attila. The graphics still look very good in my opinion. And I really like the game engine this game was build on.

[@c1v1c2v2]

For Gendarmes, at the end you were really close to the proper pronunciation, you just need to roll the "r" a bit more. It's incredibly hard to write about pronunciation... Did you take a some french before Heir?

[@Reredrumapple]

Can you try Scotland? I havent played MP as them but they have some pretty good infantry and i think their archers can hold their own in melee somewhat, have sod all for cav though

[@boriskravchenko454]

crossbows are pretty damn good against armored units, as long as they get direct shots off (Not the high, arcing shots), but they do lose against archers a lot of the time unless they're heavily armored like Pavise Crossbowmen.

[@boriskravchenko454]

Also, pikemen really suck in MTW2. They're bugged out, almost never use their pikes and just switch to their secondary weapon as soon as they enter combat. Sucks for factions like Scotland, who use lots of pikes.

[@brotherhoodz97]

Freaking love this game

[@solhamer3502]

Imo you should have gone for All Periods, then you could have taken dismounted noble knights (a good analog to Varangian Guard) and dismounted feudal knights, which are cheaper than chivalric knights but will still beat most Byz infantry

[@DarkAnd1000]

You had to spend money on getting 8 units of dismounted knight while your oponnent could use that money to heavly upgrade his infantry and cav, that is why your superior cav had such a hard time beating his and you lost the Infantry fight even tough you had the superior units.

[@humblepotpie3504]

if u want some good cav choices u can try egypt good muskets u take turks and if u want archers go with england also milan is good for crossbows, as for me i would like to see a video using egypt with mamelukes and nafts

[@TheBasjenator]

You might as well call the gens d'armes men-at-arms, since that's exactly what it means.

[@bracket8706]

praise be to patchy

[@alexsitaras6508]

this game looks great for a game released in '06

[@jaypace7004]

Was thinking the same thing. Crazy.

[@mrlentelka3111]

Funny !!!! :3 very funny :)

[@RMSUkraine]

great vid

[@tokenofhell]

Pikes are good at holding. Dont get any ideas about agressive advancment with them though. If cav charges at pikes they get completly destroyed

[@user-ci2lk3nc3d]

Рэйбоу Деш Франц 🇫🇷⚔️ Старлайт Глиммер Византио🇬🇷

[@DjangokillHMG]

The archer animations are better on Medieval 2 than Rome 2 or Attila. How do CA forget how to do stuff like that?

[@AryanWarriorBogpill]

FLEMISH PIKEMEN. Pikemen do well even when their pikes aren’t down. Their pikes are basically an anti-cavalry weapon, they can hold their own and depending on their quality come out on top in a melee fight against swordsmen and spearmen. Missile infantry can damage them easily though.

[@hermanPla]

The varangian guards is the best melee unit in the game on an inf vs inf battle. You should have gone with the holy roman empire and stacked up on zweihanders. The pikemen are good for holding a frontline but they will get destroyed by any archer

[@hermanPla]

Or you could have used the Gendarmes as cav(they are the best cav in the game) and those armored crossbowmen as frontline (really they are strong in melee and if your enemy charged you you could charge them with cav)

[@megalizardfish]

Play more Medieval II Heir!!!

[@Commander1991NOR]

Woot heir can actually be defeated :P

[@ZoltarWOT]

i love this game

[@Sigmar900]

try a game with the danes if you want some solid infantry

[@nods7568]

Lol look at the cavalry 04:24

[@HNW00]

Heir have you seen the TW deals in the humble store? All TW games are 75% off. Do you think its trustworthy? I've seen another TW KZbinr do a vid on it.

[@Symmonso96]

I've bought from there before it's safe, it's basically just an online charity shop

[@matthewclarke1466]

what is your favorite total war game?

[@jaypace7004]

Are the Scots a playable faction? I'd really love to play this.

[@dukeofburgundy4229]

Yup :D

[@Rukdug]

France is best in the late game, although switching from Crossbowmen to archers is better in the case of France.

[@DzinkyDzink]

Has the cavalry charge been ever fixed in M2:TW?

[@Rellana1]

It was in a patch I believe,but I mostly play campaign with mods,so don't quote me on that.

[@lithen00]

Nick Dzink in kingdoms yes but not vanila

[@Th3ThirdOne1]

Why can't I see your mouse cursor in MTW2?

[@scottieboomboom1]

cough* play third age cough*

[@nickstevenson5081]

*cough* I approve *cough* :)

[@thegod04]

If you you want a good French build then don't take any infantry. Take Scot's Gaurds and lots of heavy cav.

[@franzlimit]

The french army ran away. Who would have thought that?

[@PixelatedApollo1]

franzlimit The french have an amazing military history. Why would you say that?

[@franzlimit]

Pixelated Apollo I am sorry it is just an ongoing joke in the world wide web ;) The joke is mainly based on their capitulation in the WW2. (I don't want to start a political discussion about that now please; sorry if you were offended)

[@PixelatedApollo1]

haha i'm not offended. I just hate the myths about history that some people think are fact. Like Napoleon was short, vikings had horns on their helmets, french are surrender monkeys...ect ect. And again I am no way offended or mad. Just seeing where you were coming from. :P

[@cameronmcclintock8394]

I play this game all the time and still do multi do if you want maybe we could do a match

[@mglkeiser1532]

Cameron Mcclintock Add me on steam man. My steam name in game is Keiser.

[@MusketeerYanick]

Heir, we can't see your cursor

[@macmckulis7440]

This game should do good on PS4 platform

[@TheDAWinz]

Byzantine is always good, and the turkish hashanin

[@fellegibenjamin8500]

Heir please do a battle with Hungary!

[@XxMachuRicuxX]

Do a campaign

[@Edward-kh5ub]

would this game work on a mac laptop with a usb?

[@Kosiwog]

you can get it on mac

[@Edward-kh5ub]

thanks do you no how well it runs?

[@alextyphon5799]

i was trying to work that out myself just earlier...

[@Patrick-qs7nt]

Edward 14 look up your pc stats then compare it to the game requirements. you can use system requirement labs if u want

[@Edward-kh5ub]

thanks

[@totalmadnesman]

Patchy never ever use pikemen in Medieval 2! NEVER! They are soo bad x)

[@TheJOEkool34]

If you thought Pikemen are worthless in Rome two, then these guys are beyond worthless, they can't even hold of light Cav from the front let alone infantry

[@erethon9467]

Pikes are very efficient if you know how to use them. They can even break heavy infantry formations if used properly. Unfortunately though, few people know how to use them. They are indeed very difficult to master.

[@BrorealeK]

Kapios Agnostos I've always done well with pikemen in Med 2. I don't get the complaints, they're great.

[@TheJOEkool34]

when i used them to brace agaisn't units, they always get smashed for some reason, even when i had them in phalanx

[@johnroscoe2406]

I like this video and I will watch more of your stuff, so please don't take offense, but I hate how every KZbinr pronounces "chivalric." You all say it like "shiv vul ric" when it should rightly be pronounced "shiv VAL ric." "Shiv vahl ric" would be ok too. /rant

[@lausthaue9512]

More Rome 1

[@ragmority]

you lost me at yolo