Medieval Total War II

[snoopy369]

Like this ...

If your control panel doesn't look like mine, but has a more 'cutesy' blue look to it, turn off "category" mode and revert to "classic" mode (it's a link on the left hand side of the window).

[El_Cid]

Sorry to hear about that issues Grandpa Troll - and weird that it's only happened to you while trying to install Medieval2. Still hopefully snoopy369's advise will sort the problem for you.

For what it's worth i've seen other people in other places talk about having issues with installing Medieval2, even though the guys here seem to be doing ok. There are apparantly alot of people on the official forums who also are having trouble getting it to run. Overall people seem puzzled why it's happening(when Rome was ok) and when they get the install ok the game seems fine.

Next week i'll give it a go and see how i go.

[snoopy369]

Most of them seem to have had DVD issues, which I think may be a quality control issue, although some seemed to think it was a copyprotection issue.

Direct2Drive

[Proteus_MST]

So, I finally finished my first campaign as Spain after a hard victorious battle against the Timurids about control over Jerusalem and Antiochia.

I have to admit, I really like gunpowder units in MTW2.

It´s a pleasure to see your solid shot hit a mass of enemy soldiers, sending them flying into al direcions (I really pefer solid a shots against explosive or flame projectiles as they have are better in hiting their intended target and bounce after impact, meaning that you can plow a corridor into the enemy formations )


I once had an artillery duel against the english, old artillery against new artillery. I had 6 culverines as well as several units of Jinetes and knights, as well as 2 units of fot soldiers totally around 600 soldiers.
The english had 4 bombards (or grand bombards) and 2 Trebuchets as wel as several units of foot knights, totally 900 men.
During the duel phase I used solid shots and the english used flaming projectiles. After the duel phase ended more than 50% of the english army were killed, whereas I had lost only three men
The unreliability of the older bombards and trebs, combined with the added unreliability if you fire flaming or explosive shots meant, that the english projectiles landed everywhere but not in the vicinity of the places they should hit (O.K., it was this in combination with the fact that I was able to take out both of the trebs as well as 2 of the bombards during the duel [in the beginning I even aimed at them, but seeing that the enemy artillery pieces didn´t hit anything I switched to targetting their feudal soldiers instead ])

Pity I didn´t get a chance to see the Timurid H´wacha type rocket launchers in action.
The only time I had war against the timurids was in the very last turn, when I joined the crusade for Antiochia and conquered both, Antiochia as well as Jerusalem in the same turn, both in the hands of the timurids (needed Jerusalem to fulfill the campaign goals)

[Grandpa Troll]

I will go the the Microsoft list.

@ Snoopy,yes I did exactly as you showed, did that last night.

I shall keep you posted

Gramps

[Grandpa Troll]

Method 6: Set non-driver signing policy to silently succeed
If you are running a version of Windows 2000, set the Unsigned non-driver installation behavior Group Policy setting to Silently succeed. This Group Policy setting is located under Computer Configuration, under Windows Settings, under Security Settings, under Local Policies, under Security Options in the Group Policy MMC snap-in. If you are running Windows XP or a later version of Windows, this Group Policy setting is no longer supported. In this case, follow these steps to resolve this problem: 1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate, and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Non-Driver Signing
3. Right-click the Policy binary value, and then click Modify.
4. The Value data will appear in the following format:

0000 02


Press DELETE to remove the current value (02 in this example), and then type 0 (the current value will now appear as 00).
5. Click OK, and then quit Registry Editor.

Mine shown here in red already was @ 0000 00

Lets try something else..on to number 7 I reckon

Gramps da frustrated

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST
---
I once had an artillery duel against the english, old artillery against new artillery. ---

I've found mortars particularly effective in destroying enemy artillery. A few rounds and you're done, then you can focus on killing their infantry and cavallery. They have shorter range than culverines, but much better precision.

[Grandpa Troll]

I decided against doing number 7..hopefuly an answer will be forth coming

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Grandpa Troll
I decided against doing number 7..hopefuly an answer will be forth coming

Maybe a good place to look for a solution for your problem could be this Forum:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

In the Subforum Citadel they have some threads concerning bugs and problems with MTW2:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=131

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST


Maybe a good place to look for a solution for your problem could be this Forum:

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/

In the Subforum Citadel they have some threads concerning bugs and problems with MTW2:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=131

Thanks

I posted there as well!

Gramps

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Quillan
One of the big issues is the spear/cavalry/infantry balance. Cavalry that charge properly just seem to annhialate any infantry they hit, whether that be spear, sword, halberd or pike. Against pike, they take huge casualties and can't normally reach beyond the first rank, but they often still wipe the entire front rank instantly. Spears get such huge penalties against other infantry (or the infantry huge bonuses against spears, not sure which) that European peasants can beat armored sergeants in melee!

According to some postings in another forum, the problems with the pikes seems to be that the first ranks of pikemen drop their pikes and draw their swords as soon as the enemy gets too near to them, i.e. as soon as tzhe first ranks of pikes are penetrated a little bit, weakening the whole formation.

Obviously this seems to come to soon unless you use the highest unit size for your battles.

One counter to this found by the modders is to change their second weapon from sword to no second weapon at all.
Obviously this makes them nearly invincible against frontal atacks, just like the phalanx-formations in RTW were.

I successfully tested another counter to thios situation.
Multiple layers of pikemen.

To test it I chose the spanish who have tercio pikemen as well as militia pikemen.
I used a half hexagon formation against the borders of the battlefield (so that the enemy couldn´t outflank me)

Units:
First line of battle: 6 tercio pikemen 5 ranks deep, 4 units in a long line and the other 2 diagonally so that they close the gap between battleline and border of the battlefield.

Second Line: Only 2 ranks behind the front rank of each of these tercio pikemen units was a militia pikemen formation (so that the pikes of the tercio and the pikes of the militia pikemen overlapped)

In my second test I also had a third line of battle which was 6n units of militia spearmen and was located behind the 2 lines of pikemen.

Enclosed by these 3 lines of battle were some foot soldiers or mounted soldiers which took care of any enemies which were able to penerate the lines.

Cost of the units: around 7000

I tested them against french mounted soldiers (the best mix of knight I could buy for 10.000)
as well as a mix of english foot and mounted soldiers (again I used the full 10.000 available to buy units)

In the first test (against the french knights) I had only the first and second line of battle (i.e. only pikemen and no spearmen) as well as 3 mounted units enclosed by them.
The enemy was able to break through the lines on three occasions (meaning In had to use my innr units to repel them and give the pikemen the chance to regroup.
Result: I lost around 300 soldiers, the enemy lost around 400 soldiers (with my losses being cheaper to replace ) giving me a heroic victory.

In the second test against the english (with spearmen behind the 2 layers of pikemen) my lines of battles weren´t penetrated even once.
I lost only 133 of these tercio pikemen, whereas the engish lost around 560 soldiers.

Cavalry charges normally ended with the cavalry loosing hald of their men and then either withdrawing to regroup or fighting for a short while (after which they withdrew and regrouped) and only really masive and prolonged attacks enabled the enemies to get behind the first lines of pikes to do some damage.
Pikemen may not be as invincible as the hoplites of RTW, but if used correctly they kick ass

P.S.:
Did a third test, Setting with 3 lines of battle (a smentioned above) and just 2 units of peasants in case any enemy unit would break through, lowering the costs of the formation to just 6000
and using the french as enemy (only mounted knights, just like in the first test).

My own losses:
11 % ( around 100 soldiers)
Enemy losses: 75% (around 400 soldiers)
(in costs: I lost around 1000 building points, the french around 7000 [more than my entire formation has cost me ])

The fench didn´t get through once, but were able to get up to the third rank (i.e. militia spearmen) at one time.
(during the whole battle the only action after forming my units in the beginning was to reform the 2 pike units were this half breakthrough took place when the battle allowed it [i.e. at a time when the enemy knight withdrew to reform thir own lines])

(had the enemy used miussile troops or even artillery the outcome might have been different, but I just wanted to demonstrate their abilities in melee if used with the right tactics)

[Grandpa Troll]

Well, I am amazed after 2 days of posting on 4 different boards, no one has an answer to my problem.

I do hope to get it resolved, as what I have read this is a very decent game.

Gramps

[Gamecube64]

Maybe it is a DVD error, can you exchange it?

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Gamecube64
Maybe it is a DVD error, can you exchange it?

I am on phone with HP, if they cant fix I will return it

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Grandpa Troll
Well, I am amazed after 2 days of posting on 4 different boards, no one has an answer to my problem.

I do hope to get it resolved, as what I have read this is a very decent game.

Gramps

And yu seem to be the only person so far that hs this problem.

As I didn´t get such a message like you got during install (and Windows would inform me of such things) it has most definitely something to do with your hardware.

Two things:
1. Have you installed the latest driver vrsions of the important hardware (i.e. especially graphics card and soundcard). If you have, have you also tried to install older versions of your hardware drivers? (on rare occasions installing older drivers instead of the newer ones solves issues especially if newer drivers aren´t tested as thorougly as they should be)
2. Have you tried to install the game on another PC (to check if it works with other hardware present)