Denmark is one of the factions you have to unlock. Have you unlocked it?
That could be an issue for everyone. I’m going to do a fresh install and see if the save file works for me after I patch up.
Okay, I reinstalled but it kept the data files. I uninstalled the mod though, and the save game still works.
I think I’d want to start over anyway, because the character names are messed up in the file.
I’m hoping the issue is just that LOUNE hasn’t unlocked Denmark yet. Even if he has, I’m pretty sure there are others in the queue who haven’t.
We might have to be a faction that is initially playable. England, France, Germany, Spain, HRE, and Venice would be the options.
I want to make a save file with one of those factions and see if it works if I send it to someone. Anyone want to give it a try?
Yeah, I’ve got it unlocked. If someone DOESN’T have it unlocked, you can quickly unlock it by going to Program Files–>SEGA–>Medieval II Total War–>data–>world–>maps–>campaign–>imperial_campaign–>descr_strat. Go into that descr_strat. You should see a list of “playable” factions. copy and paste “denmark” from “unlockable” to “playable”. That will unlock Denmark as a playable faction in the game after you close that descr_strat and fire up the program.
Let’s post a link for whatever mod you have, as well as the patch. Let’s make sure everyone has the same patch at least. The mod shouldn’t impact everything, but it concievably could.
Talon Karrde, make a quick save game with the Holy Roman Empire and send it my way, please.
I’ve unlocked all the factions, but I’d prefer not to play with Venice, since I’ve already won with them. Also, the 1.2 patch is 500 freakin megs which I probably wouldnt even D/L with highspeed, is it okay if we try it with me still on 1.1?
In that case, let’s post to a site that has the 1.1 patch. Let’s all download and install the same 1.1 patch. If someone has the 1.2 patch, let’s uninstall, reinstall, and download and install the 1.1 patch from the common link.
What does the 1.2 patch address (curiousity demands that I ask).
(It shouldn’t matter if someone is on 1.1 or 1.2, would it? That’d only affect the person’s individual program, not the save file itself, right? Bah! I hate computers!)
Upon reflection, I’m willing to bet that the mod is getting in the way. Try this, Talon Karrde. Send me your “descr_strat” file as well. That mod should change your descr_strat file. Mine hasn’t been modded. THAT might be the problem.
You can get 1.1 here: GamersHell - Your Gateway to Gaming Since 2000
Here are the changes in 1.2: http://download.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=13750
I wouldn’t count on saves being compatible, but we could test it out. You couldn’t download 1.2 overnight, Ludovic?
Well, I’d have to reinstall it to downgrade to 1.1, so I’m going to uninstall it and then clear out the directory. That’ll hopefully fix any problems.
Okay, I’m going to start another Denmark campaign now off the fresh install/patch to 1.1 . I think it’ll work this time.
Okay. Think we’ve got it all worked out now. Stupid computers.
Well, King Knud is dead again, so King Charles gets to take over. I’ll recap what happened, but I don’t feel like doing it with quite as much this time since I just did one for the false-start campaign.
I decided to leave Hamburg alone and go for Stockholm to start with. I was planning to take Oslo but the council suggested I take Stettin, so I did. Then some time passed and I took Oslo.
I decided to go for an alliance with France since they are close enough to fight my nearby enemies but not too close that sharing a border would be a likely issue. I later allied with Hungary for the same reason. They happily accepted it.
The pope called a Crusade to Jerusalem. I got an army together and made good time sending them on the way. I considered sacking Constantinople on the way but decided against it. Unfortunately the Venetians beat me to Jerusalem. The stupid pope only gave me 167 gold for going all the way there. Our money immediately went into the negative numbers because of the cost of the now non-crusading units. The army was in a rebel province, so I had them take it. I considered taking Antioch but decided to wait and see if I could get the pope to call a crusade to it at some point. I kept my huge army there for just such an occasion. I decided to accept Egypt’s offer for a ceasefire for the time being.
Venice gave me a very generous offering for an alliance, throwing in their map info, and I accepted gladly.
Our economy was in poor shape and getting worse. I sort of kept things afloat. At some point I discovered that Poland had sent a spy into one of my cities and considered beginning a war with them but decided my position was too weak to spread my troops around.
Then a number of years later those German bastards blockaded one of my ports. It was pathetically easy to sink the fleet since I maintained a decent navy.
I noticed that Hamburg was poorly defended. My spy told me they only had two units of mailed knights and one of peasant crossbows. I took a gamble and assaulted it with about four units of spear/town militia and one of light cavalry, since at this point our treasury was at over -1000 and I didn’t want to take more than that from the nearby provinces. The gamble paid off and I won a heroic victory, and the money from taking Hamburg was enough that I build ports in all my provinces. We shouldn’t be having money problems any time too soon.
There was a papal election. One of the candidates was ours, and the other two belonged to allied factions. I voted for us, but we lost.
Poland decided to besiege Stettin, but with few enough men that it would be easy to defeat them. I didn’t get the chance, because I died. RIP King Knud.
Also, that Polish army is gone now and there are rebels in their place. I don’t really know what happened to them.
So, King Charles has taken over from his predecessor (Og save his soul!). He’s pissed off some Muslims in far away lands and managed to gain a foothold. I’m guessing he had a Crusade going and took the land along the way. Good for him! My predecessor has also managed to piss off the Polish and the Holy Roman Empire. I’m spending my time making sure I have more knowledge of the globe and making sure I’ve got trade going with every nation.
It’s also my intent to get my priests made into cardinals, my cardinals packed into the College of Cardinals, and then, my cardinals installed as the Pope. Good times!
Next installment very soon…
(Talon Karrde, no time limit on battles? Are you trying to kill me?!?!)
It is my intent to never be on the receiving end of a besiegement :eek: (Although I’m not sure if the “passive besiegement” is still a problem in 1.1 since that hasn’t happened to me yet in 1.1, I’ve gotten lucky enough to always have been the aggressor.)
…We join our intrepid King Charles the Honourable in his reign…
I can see most of the map! I had to track down every backwater “civilization” and find their borders. Douches. You should be begging to give me your borders. Stop being difficult.
Poland. You are bad, bad neighbors. I fleeced the Turks into giving up Trebizond, I beat down the rebels at Bordeaux, I’ve decimated some of the biggest armies that the Holy Roman ASsholes could field, and you still do not want to become my vassal. You beg and WHIMPER for a ceasefire, but to become my vassal? Noooo. You can’t do that. And why exactly can’t you do that? Oh yeah, your allies are the Holy Roman Assholes. This…disappoints me. I won’t even TALK ceasefire with you unless you give me two cities. You, kind sirs, are on notice.
Mongols? What in the fuck are those? They’re really beating up on Baghdad. Wow, I hope I get my hands around them. They sound like fun people. Maybe I’ll be alive long enough to crush them beneath my heel…
…next installation coming.
(Ludovic, not only are the battle time limits unlimited, but there’s limited ammo. If you intend to arrow people, over-fucking do it.)
Fucking hamsters. You’re in money problem, but that’ll change with the big showdown with the Holy Roman Assholes. Poland was dealt with for a while until they felt sassy. There’s a sizeable army in the province north of where the big fight is (you should see it). That should be enough to cripple/wipe out the Polish.
Once the Assholes fall/become a vassal, Poland should follow suit. The Byzantines might also. Check on their status.
I just got the saved game tonight…and I’m WAY too drunk to do more than load it up tonight. I’ll see if I can figure out the situation tomorrow and then what, if anything I can do to get us moving forward. As long as there are no bloody elephants we should be ok. 
-XT
Yeah, I was gonna ask about time limits, but I figured I should get things going. I’m used to not having them now.
If you’re besieged, you’ll want to have good archers and artillery. Sally out and have them shoot at the enemy until they run out of ammo, then have them come in and once everyone is back inside the gate exit the battle and it’ll be a draw. Then during the next turn they won’t have as many men.
That strategy worked well for me when I was England. Of course, I had longbowmen… it also works well with gunfire artillery. It’s not as effective with peasant or militia archers/crossbowmen, because they don’t have much range and the enemy can rush forward and attack. You could have a unit run to them and try to draw them to your archers, or you could have your archers run up, fire, and run away, but that’s not very effective. You could also send some cavalry and chip away at some of their units and run back.
When I was the French the Mongols came with a full stack and besieged Antioch which I had maybe half that. I sallied out and sent out mercenary cavalry archers (I think Turkinoples or something like that) and the Mongols hammered at them with their own, but I also had archers on the walls. I had them fire at whatever they could hit from the wall, and when I ended it I had barely put a dent in them, but after that turn they left me alone and sent the army somewhere else.
If you’re besieged and you know for certain that the settlement will fall the next turn, you could scrap all the buildings you can and disband all the units to save some money.
Well, I got the saved game, loaded it up and started my turn.
Some highlights for anyone interested (I was going to do a whole story talking about each turn, but its way too much work…and I just don’t have the energy atm :)).
My king is King Bergthor, age 44. I began in the year of our lord (well, someone’s lord) 1250 with 10 generals, 11 controlled regions (3 cities, 8 castles), on turn 86. The treasury when I took over was at -2380 with a deficit of -382 per turn. We are at war ATM with the Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire (gods know why) and Poland.
I’ll give a quick summary of where I’m at when good ole Bergthor kicks the bucket. Thus far I’ve been able to get the treasury back to positive both in absolute and on a per turn basis, and have captured several cities and castles. The Holy Roman Empire is pretty much on the ropes…I’ve managed to completely wipe out several of their larger field armies by enticing them to attack me accross various bridges. Its currently 1258.
-XT
That’s pretty good for however many turns there are in 8 years.
Here’s what the list looks like now:
- xtisme
- Miller
- Ludovic
- Kinthalis
- Alessan
…
Talon Karrde
LOUNE
Yeah, I had to mortgage the treasury to finance that final push into the Holy Roman Empire. The only things they have of any consequence are in northern Italy.
I haven’t had a vassal in Medieval II. I really wanted one. Drat.