The game is set mainly in Europe, but also features the Middle East and North Africa. The campaign is carried out in a similar fashion to Shogun: Total War, but features many enhancements. The campaign mode is turn-based, with each turn representing one year, allowing the player to attend to all needs of the faction before allowing the artificial intelligence to carry out the other factions' moves and decisions. Another campaign mode is available, called "Glorious Achievements", in which each faction has several historically-based goals to achieve, which score points the faction with the most achievement points wins the game. Religion is very important in the game, with the player able to convert provinces to their own religions to cement the people's loyalty.
Diplomacy and economics are two other aspects the player can use to advance their aims, as well as having access to more clandestine means such as espionage and assassination. In the campaign, the player controls construction, unit recruitment and the movement of armies, fleets and agents in each of these provinces, using these means to acquire and defend the provinces. Each of the factions controls a number of historical provinces, which on the map contain a castle and, if located by the sea, a port as well. The main campaign of Medieval: Total War involves the player choosing one of the fourteen playable factions and eventually leading them in conquest on the strategy map. Individual historic battles have the player controlling a historical figure in an isolated battle that occurred in the era, such as controlling William Wallace through the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
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Historical campaigns allow the player to control a series of famous battles from a war of the medieval period, such as the Hundred Years War and the Crusades, playing as historic commanders like Richard the Lionheart. In addition to the main campaign, Medieval: Total War also features a game mode where the player can undertake various historical campaigns and battles. Each faction varies in territory, religion and units however, factions of the same culture share many of their core units. These factions, together with several other factions appearing at the start of the campaign, are unavailable to the player in the main campaign. Several factions, such as the Golden Horde, emerge during the course of play at their historical time. The factions themselves represent many of the major nations at the time, including the Byzantine Empire, France, England, the Holy Roman Empire and the Turks. The initial extent of each major faction's territory, and the factions available, depends on the starting period of the game, Early (1087), High (1205) or Late (1321), reflecting the historical state of these factions over time. The strategic portion of the game divides the campaign map among twenty factions from the period, with a total of twelve being playable. As with the preceding Total War game, Shogun: Total War, the game consists of two broad areas of gameplay: a turn-based campaign map that allows the user to move armies across provinces, control agents, diplomacy, religion, and other tasks needed to run their faction, and a real-time battlefield, where the player directs the land battles and sieges that occur. It focuses on the warfare, religion and politics of the time to ultimately lead the player in conquest of the known world. Medieval: Total War is based upon the building of an empire across medieval Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The game was a commercial success, topping the British video game chart upon release. The depth and complexity of the strategy portion was also received well by reviewers, together with well integrated historical accuracy. The real-time battles were praised for their realism and the new feature of siege battles but also received some criticism for unit management.
Medieval: Total War received acclaim from reviewers several critics commending it as a milestone in gaming. Gameplay is both strategic and tactical, with strategy played out in turn-based fashion on a province-by-province level, while military units of varying types and capabilities fight against each other in real time on a 3D battlefield.
Originally announced in August 2001, the game was released in North America on 19 August 2002 and in Europe on 30 August for Microsoft Windows.įollowing a similar form of play to Shogun: Total War, the player builds a dynastic empire in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, spanning the period of 1087 to 1453. Set in the Middle Ages, it is the second game in the Total War series, following on from the 2000 title Shogun: Total War.
Medieval: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics computer game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Activision.